Stop and See
by Princess LaLaBlue
Summary: Sorrow Evercreech had always been a strange, odd girl. Well, her best friend is Luna, so what do you expect really? But when it's discovered that she is squeamish about sex and romance, some Slytherin boys make a bored bet to be her first. But Sorrow becomes odder yet as the ever competitive Draco discovers her secret; her ability to predict a person's future with just a touch.
1. Insanity

Chapter 1; Insanity:

Warning; Rated M for swearing, violence, lemon, and lots of magical wizards and witches with sanity problems. You have been warned…

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series or any of its characters, I am only using them to fulfill my own disillusioned dreams and fan-girl wishes. : P

**This story is my first attempt at HP fanfiction. My character is OC, but is not a part of the 'golden trios' member of friends, though she is close friends with Luna. Harry and such others will feature in this tale eventually. This story takes place in the sixth book, so yeah, Draco's a sixth year student and so is our OC. Also, this is my first experiment with first person, so have patience with me if it does not come out right at first. Though the way I made this story seem purely comedic in the summary, some very dark themes will be in this story, dark indeed. Thank you for choosing my story, and I hope you find as much enjoyment reading it as I do writing it. Onward kiddies. **

~o0o~

All the very best people were insane.

Utterly, hopelessly mad.

Dumbledore told me that the very first day I came to Hogwarts. I stepped off the beautiful red locomotive, and was immediately swept away by his kind words and promises to protect me.

How enchanting they were, and they filled my little heart till it was fat with faith.

As years passed, he has kept those promises, but now, I wish he would break them. I wish I could just leave and fade.

All away, like hot breath on glass.

Like ink poured into water, slowly dissipating until there was nothing left but a new shade of color to mark that I was even here in the first place.

But then, I would terribly miss pancakes. And orange juice.

So here I still was, my sixth year at Hogwarts, very much busy contemplating the universe and breakfast foods with great fascination as my bare feet kicked at the cold water below them.

The new school year was just about to start, in a day or so. As usual after my first year, I arrived at Hogwarts earlier than the others students, since I have…_special needs_.

Such a nice way of labeling the incurably insane.

How do I know I am insane? Well, for one thing, my favorite teacher is Professor Snape.

I love potions, and I love learning about potions from him. He may be mean, and surly, and greasy, and snarly, but…well, no, he was all that and more. But he was kindly towards me. As kindly as Snape could manage, for Dumbledore sort of forced him to be my guardian away from my guardians.

Guardian, what an odd word to call people who were forced to look after you. Normally that job was pushed off to the birth parents, but for me, they did not exist.

I told them that. They were as good as dead to me.

For me, I had no living family, even though they were still parading around with tacky leather purses and smelly perfume. No, wait, that was my uncle Johnathan who used to do that, and he is actually dead.

The only exceptions were dear Dumbledore and Uncle Snapey. Nargles, how he hated it when I called him that.

Which was exactly the reason why I don't. I said I was insane, not stupid. I got all Outstanding on my O.W.L.S.. Well, that's a lie; I got only an Acceptable in Divination.

You'll see why that's ironic soon enough.

Besides, it's not like Snape was my real uncle anyway. I adopted him five years ago, just like Dumbledore adopted me.

Rolling fleets of fog kept passing me by on this early, cold morning. It was pretty, like soggy pillows of cotton candy were trying to tempt me to eat them. I was indeed tempted, but I was saving my stomach for my second breakfast. As custom for me while at Hogwarts, I was at Black Lake, toes dangling off of a dock I had found my first year here that seldom anyone else visited.

No one but me at any rate. And Luna, but she was not no one.

She was everyone to me.

Together, we were two sausages in a bun. She, Dumbledore and Snape were my only comforts here at Hogwarts; though don't tell Snape that. Luna though was something the older gents could never be to me though. She was my friend.

My lovely, dotty friend.

Honestly, I doubt there was ever a scrap of sanity between the two of us from birth. Not that Luna was insane, not professionally like me.

Special, but not insane.

But despite having such a shortcoming, and being a year younger, she was my best friend, and had been since the two of us had met as little chubby cheeked tots.

The initial meeting was every part as odd as us. My now dead but still living family who were a part of an old, dignified and Pureblood line were taking me for an afternoon walk around some park, when a young reporter for the Quibbler fell out of a tree.

The man had been trying to get his first inside scoop on the Evercreech family's take on the existence of Wrackspurts. My parents called the authorities onto him, but it was too late.

I became dangerously curious about what a Wrackspurt was.

The next day, I snuck off to a wizarding book shop in Diagon Alley while my mother was getting new robes for herself. I didn't find a book on Wrackspurts to my disappointment. I instead found something much better.

An expert by the name of Luna Lovegood, the daughter of the same up and coming reporter for the Quibbler, wandering about for some thick books to help her reach the top shelf in her kitchen.

It was dotty friendship at first sight. And what a pair we made. We spent all the time we could with one another, which was easier to pull off than you think.

Solely because I was, and _am_, naughty.

I would often sneak to Luna's house by being a wicked little witch and using any magical means I could without being caught, which I was very good at. I must say, I think Luna and her family have swayed quite the influence over me.

It's not as if I am like Luna, far from it. She's her own creation and I would not dare plagiarize such creativity. But I find the special madness she enjoys to be much kinder than my own that I have more or less adopted it in hopes that maybe it might over shadow mine.

Explains much and none at all, doesn't it?

I did miss Luna my first year here at Hogwarts, as she was younger and would not attend until the next. Though, I had plenty of things to preoccupy my mind back then.

Forefront being the…accident.

But then Luna came, as well as an infestation of Nargles in the girls' fourth floor lavatory. Bad timing that. We still had each other though, and our protective Muggle cans of whip cream that her father would give us each Christmas as presents. Such a thoughtful man.

Though somewhat alike in cracked minds, appearance wise, Luna and I were each other's sun and moon.

Luna had grown up pale of course, with long, light hair and serene silvery grey eyes just perfect for spacing out. She often had an expression that lent some to believe she was on the moon half of the time, the description fitting what with her name and all.

I sometimes wished I was where she was half the time when she was nowhere but next to me most of the time. It must be so lovely.

Me though, well, I wouldn't compare myself to being the sun out of the two of us really. More like a G-type main-sequence _star_.

I inherited russet colored hair that I had tediously grown until it reached my lower back in tangled waves that would not to be combed. I refused to cut it on the testimony of the Quibbler that long hair brings good luck to people with ten toes like me. And one should always believe what they read in a magazine.

Though born deathly pale like every other old Slytherin family, a tan pallor with many freckles had broken out over my skin thanks to my terrible weakness of accidently falling asleep in patches of sunny grass.

My eyes were colored a dull brown-green, aiding the impression people have of me that I looked like a bored cat just a tail's twitch away from springing forward to cause mischief on who I was staring at. Or eat them, either way, that's what people say.

Well, to be truthful, it was Luna that told me that, while she was hanging upside down from a tree searching for fairy tooth fillings again. But I liked the description well enough to be flattered.

I love cats. Their slit eyes, their rumbling purr, the way syrup drizzles over them and butter fills those odd little holes-no, wait, that's waffles.

I love waffles.

You know, I keep telling you I am insane, but I bet you have yet to be convinced of it. Well, how about this for absolute evidence. I tore myself away from my parents because I told them a secret I had been keeping since I was very small.

It was very naughty of me to tell them, I admit. But then, I _am_ very naughty.

I told them I knew when and how they were going to die.

But that's nothing new. I know when and how I am going to die.

I know when Neville will lose his wand before he's even lost it, and I know when Dumbledore will sleepwalk through the halls wearing his favorite red night cap. I know when Emilia will slap her boyfriend for cheating on her with another Slytherin girl and when Luna will have her fish hook earrings taken by some cruel third years but she will instead suspect Snorkacks.

I know everything. And it fills my brain with such screams.

But I can't tell anyone. No more.

Because, you see, all the best people are insane, only because the worst make them so in the first place.

~o0o~

Well, how's that? Just a quick intro into the character and how she sees her world. She's not really any more dottier than Luna, but does hold a lot of suffering in her. So not completely insane, more just trapped she's in her own head with many other voices that are not hers. This story will mostly be in first person when we are with the OC, but when we're with Draco, it will be in narrative third.

Next chapter will feature Luna and Draco and it's already up. Comment if you have questions or just want to give an opinion. Either is welcome.


	2. Rules

Chapter 2; Rules:

**Welcome to the second chapter! Thank you for making it this far. The first chapter was a bit shorter than what I usually do. Most of the time, my chapters range at 5,000 words (though this one is just over three thousand). Just letting you know what to expect and enjoy. **

**Yo, I'm gonna start suggesting songs that tie in with each chapter's mood. Just having fun on my part, and trying to enhance the story. For this chapter, go listen to;**

**Kerli – 'Walking on Air'**

~o0o~

"Echo!" I called out, but got no reply.

"Echo! Echo!" My voice sounded out down the halls of Hogwarts, my one size too large pair of shoes clomping along.

It was the first official day here at Hogwarts, the first years just sorted at the Start of Term feast last night. I was excused from it of course, as I had a terrible case of not caring very much.

And a paper cut.

Plus, the first official night in Hogwarts was when Snape took me aside and went through his usual and long drawn speech about the rules concerning my…_special needs_.

"Ec-oooohhh!" I kept calling out, confusing many students, some looking at me as if I was off my broomstick's handle.

They had good judge of character, I must admit. Coincidently enough that was rule number one on Snape's list.

Never, ever, fraternize with the other students. Do not speak to them, do not touch them, do not give them cause to want to connect with you.

"ECHO!"

So far, so good. Luna of course was exempt from that rule, much to Snape's irking, but Dumbledore approved of our friendship. So long as I took certain precautions.

Such precautions as like those listed in rule number two; always be mindful of your surroundings. Mindful meaning making sure that no one dares take your hand to shake it, surprises you with a hug, or even brushes your hair.

Now that rule, I had a lot of trouble on. I am rather clumsy and pitifully human, and so reaching out to someone when tripping feels only natural. Until I start sobbing my eyes out when they catch me.

That part tends to freak people out. Just a smidge.

But granted, I hadn't purposely fallen on anyone or allowed for at least one hugging squeeze in over six years. Despite that being an incredible track record, it's very lonely when you think about it.

However, when you also think about what I see every time my skin makes contact with someone else's, the sacrifice is well worth it.

"Echo…Echo…Echo…" I called out half-heartedly. By now, I was certain to be late for my first class, Ancient Runes, if I didn't start making my way to the other half of the school were the class room was.

Well, those Runes were ancient anyway, so they could wait a little while longer for me.

As the hall began to empty of students who wished to be early for their classes, I felt that possibly it just might be time to give up.

But I am a stubborn sprout, as insanity is, by definition, doing the same exact thing and expecting different results. So on I went for a while, calling out with a scant whisper now.

"Echo…Echo…Ec-OH! THERE YOU ARE!"

At last, curled up into a little white ball of fur and glaring golden eyes, I had found my Echo.

She glared up at me from the window shill she had perched herself on to sun herself with the early rays of morning. With nothing but a low mewl of protest on her part, she let me sweep her up in my arms.

The cat looked less than happy to see me, but I didn't care. She was my Echo, and just like an echo, she should answer when I call. That's what echoes do. Supposed to anyway.

The white tufted creature lazily spilled out from my hold, settling into a rather odd position till she reminded me of a wet rag shagging. When she mewled again, I tut-tutted.

"I hope you're happy. I'm all tired out from trying to find you and my throat's sore now, and I think I might have stepped on some first years. Poor things." At this, I looked down at my shoes, just to make sure one wasn't still stuck on the bottom of them or something.

Nope, still clean.

Wish I could say that for the rest of me.

Well, I could. I am clean. I bathe every day and sometime twice at night. I love getting scrubbed and squeaky. I just don't look very much like it.

My hair at best could be pulled back with a ribbon, which is much more ridiculously hard than it should be, but that was as far as fashionable as I got. I didn't have much money to my name, so everything on me was too large, too tight, or too tatty. And by tatty, I mean tatters.

But you know what; I think I pull off the 'homeless student' look very well, especially when I am wearing my lucky empty vial bottle necklace that once possibly contained some Felix Felicis at one point.

Whoever threw it away is regretting it by now, that's for sure!

"Meow." Said the sagging white rag in my arms I had forgotten about. I looked down at Echo with a stern frown. She was upset at me, again, but I was not in the mood for one of her own moods. We had serious affairs to discuss.

"Don't you take that sort of attitude with me, missy! I know all about your midnight jaunts with that Crookshanks fellow, and frankly I disapprove. I've heard he is quite the lady's cat and I don't want you getting your heart broken."

"Meow!"

"I mean it. Either you stop this affair, or I'm gonna have to get nasty."

Thousands of years ago, cats used to be worshipped as gods by Muggles and Wizards alike. Echo has never forgotten this, and frankly disapproved of my habit of chiding her. This feline would saunter about with anyone she damn well pleased. Besides, Crookshanks was a perfect gentlecat in her opinion. Caught her juicy mice and everything.

But I had to guard her from such a wicked little feline hound dog. Wouldn't do me any good to have a depressed familiar when things went sour between her and her bou, as things always do for all couples. They never see it coming, but I do.

I always see everything coming.

It gets very…tedious. Maybe that's why I always look so bored to everyone else; there are no surprises left for me.

The ending has been spoiled long ago.

Oh well. I decided to distract myself by chatting away to Echo, warning her and reminding her that there are, in fact, seven hundred and twenty-three different ways to skin a cat. I can't recall if I was being stared at by passing students and staff; it's happened countless times that I fear I might feel naked without being watched by wide eyes full of confusion.

This time however, it was not me that was attracting the stares. It was what was heading in my direction. A figure was gliding over towards me. A figure with ginormous, outlandishly colorful glasses.

"Good morning Evercreech." Greeted Luna as she stared up at me. My disappointed pout over my cat's attitude became a polite grin as I beamed at my younger, shorter friend.

"Morning Luna. And you can call me by my first name. You have for the past ten years." She smiled lazily at this, silvery eyes colored with a new gleam.

"Oh, thank you. I will." She replied, sounding honest in her gratitude. My polite smile died down into a thoughtful frown.

"What are you doing in this part of the school? I thought you had Potions first?"

Well, that's what Luna said last night, when we briefly met in the halls as she was moving back into Ravenclaw. She joined me by the window shill I was now leaning against, staring at the school books she had in her hands as if surprised to see them.

"I do. I am taking the short way though, since some Snorkacks took my fish hook earrings again. Snorkacks are very dangerous with hooks you know."

At this, she looked mildly upset. But whether it was about the return of the Snorkacks or her missing earrings that were a gift from her father, not even I would ever know.

Luna was never one to be upset longer than half a second though, and I was not one to stand for her moping. I mope plenty enough for the two of us.

"Ha, I eat danger for breakfast." I chuckled, poking at the fluff in my arms, eliciting an upset meow from it. Luna pursed her lips in thought.

"But oddly enough, you panic in the face of breakfast foods."

"Ecstatic." I corrected "I get ecstatic. It's dessert that makes me panic. Never trust something that's nothing but sweets and sugar. It's always a lie."

Luna had nothing to say to this except an attentive 'Mmh', and went back to staring at her books, still confused about how they got in her hands.

I however, stared at Luna. I didn't get to speak to her much last night, besides the usual "How's your summer been?", "How's your dad?" and "How many fairy tooth fillings did you find?" we went through.

But, I've been hearing, and seeing, things. Dark little things.

Though I am shipped off to the countryside every summer to my great aunt Levi's, who unfortunately smells like salmon oil, I know of what has been happing to the wizarding world. Diagon Alley, the bridge collapse, all those innocent Muggle families…even a nutter like me felt apprehension in the air.

It was practically choking me. I wanted to make it stop. Dare I say, I may want to even help. But that was rule number three on Snape's list. Don't interfere with the present. Whatever I see, even if it was years ago, I keep to myself.

No going about sharing my little secrets with anyone. Ever.

"Are you…alright Luna?" I asked after shaking my thoughts away with a jaded sigh. It's harder than you think for me to be able to work up any sort of concern for people. Empathy was something I couldn't afford more than a teaspoon off, but all of it went out towards Luna.

She nearly had me twitching on the floor when I heard what she did last year at the Ministry of Magic when she went with that Potter boy, putting her and her family at risk of the Death Eaters' wrath. Of _his_ wrath.

But Luna only looked at me with a blank, glassy eyed stare.

"Of course I am alright. Why, what have you heard?"

I shrugged.

"Nothing, just wondering how you've been."

"That's nice."

I sighed boredly as I began drawing things in the condensation that was building up against the window. The colored glass looked so much more prettier now that there was a smiley face on it. Now for some butterflies.

Luna stayed by me, obviously not concerned with being early to class either, and took out the latest copy of the Quibbler that had she had tucked inside one of her books. The both of us were content with the silence that so often was between us, as neither of us cared much for deep, philosophical conversations. Unless it was about carrots.

Of course, the probability of the silence this morning was as feasible as a hippogriff turning into a hypocrite.

"Well, well. If it isn't my favorite pair of ding bats." A voice called out, ruining my perfect start to another imperfect day.

It was obvious who the voice belonged to, and so with my ever jaded expression, I glanced over at Luna.

"You hear that Luna? We're Malfoy's favorite bats. Let's just hope he doesn't want to play that Muggle game of baseball then."

I laughed.

To myself, I find me highly entertaining. But my humor was wasted on Malfoy and his hand puppet friends.

"We were just talking about you two." The famed fair haired boy caused a wave of snickers among the usual gang that seemed to forever be attached to his hip; Zabini, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle. The five of them were now bunched up behind us and blocking the hall, forcing some poor first years to scoot around them in absolute terror. Poor little dears.

"That's funny Malfoy. Normally you're screaming about us." I sighed, getting bored with this confrontation already as I turned back to drawing things on the misted over window.

Luna just kept reading her magazine; I bet she didn't remember she was standing in a hall at this point.

"What are you two doing here then?" Sneered out the young man of the house of Slytherin, obviously not put off by our ignoring him "Waiting around for the authorities to shuffle you away in the loony bin where you both belong? Be sure to say hello to Longbottom's parents for me."

I sighed again as I hoisted Echo into my other arm. Honestly, I don't know why he and his friends tried to get a reaction out of me and Luna. It was near impossible for us to get a reaction out of each other!

But, I suppose they must find some amusement in it for them to keep coming back. Though, it has been over three years since Malfoy had personally targeted us, despite my living in the same house as him. I thought he had grown out of pretentiously picking on nice people as he walked down the halls, or at the very least had grown bored with picking on me and Luna…

Oh, yes.

As if my life were not a tale of more misery, woe, and hokum, I was living in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat sat on my head for nearly five minutes trying to figure out where it would stick me, and rather hesitantly, put me in the Den of Snakes.

How it came to that inconclusive conclusion, I have two theories. First off, I have an incurable fondness for the color green. I think it's a beautiful color, but then again I think the same of Caput Mortuum.

Secondly, lastly, and most importantly, I _am_ very naughty. So it was only right I'd end up in Slytherin with the other naughty boys and girls in massive time out.

"I'm confused, I thought we were bats. Now we're loons too?" Spoke out Luna suddenly, mild bafflement crossing her features as she placed her colorful glasses on top of her head.

"No my dear." I started while poking at Echo's pink nose "You say 'loonies'. That's the plural for loon. And you can be a bat and a loon. They both have wings after all."

"When are you two ever gonna realize that you're both just here to play the parts of the fool for your Houses? For which we greatly appreciate _Evercreech_, as we Slytherins all do love a good laugh." Malfoy sneered out from behind us, another fit of snickers passing over his friends.

Dear crumbs, were he and his muppets still here? Well, it seemed they wouldn't be going away unless we gave them some attention. Teenagers were so immature that way. Good thing I'll never be one.

"Though, I do pity you both." Went on the fair haired boy, and I could _feel_ the smirk on his face without turning around "Must be so exhausting having all your energies wasted on just trying to remember how to breathe."

Luna chuckled loudly then, but whether it was because of what Malfoy said or of the article about 'How to Grow Your Own Muggle Rubber Duck' she was reading, I hoped for the latter.

"Then again, maybe I shouldn't feel any pity for creatures whose faces give the Giant Squid in Black Lake an ego boost." Went Malfoy's mouth again, but this time I was affected by the sneering, haughty air that surrounded him, battering against my turned back like a unwanted draft.

That did it.

I am insane, but I'm also smart. But knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Wisdom was also not messing with Draco Malfoy on the very first day of class. But I happen to like tomatoes in my fruit salad, so that plan was out the window.

Plus, I may be indifferent, but I still had some pride.

A little.

Enough to open my big trap.

"Big egos are just big shields for lots of empty, hollow space." I recited loudly, turning on my heels and making Echo swing limply in my grip as I faced the group of Slytherins.

I took a step forward, and saw Pansy and Crabbe shy away. They knew how I got, and they may be willing to gain up on me, but I bet my Muggle Crayon collection none of them would want meet me alone in a dark alley way, butter knife in hand.

The only one I was interested in was the fair haired boy though, as I continued, tone dragging slowly.

"And your shield is huugggee Malfoy. Gi-norm-ous."

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a scoff, far from insulted but somewhat confused.

So was I.

I hadn't gotten a good look at him when he arrived with the other students yesterday, but the fair haired boy I had grown up with in the House of Slytherin was more fair than I had ever known him to be. He was so pale.

Deathly so.

But there was something even more arrestingly interesting than his timid pallor that I felt my mouth drop a little.

"You know," I began whispering, standing less than five feet away from Malfoy "you have the most expressive eyebrows I have ever seen. I'm sorry to say I've never noticed before. Luna, come take a look at them."

Luna didn't bother taking her eyes off of the article she was still reading to look up at the repulsion and, albeit slight, confusion that was on Malfoy's face.

Shame, cause I always thought he looked rather cute when he was looking absolutely sick to his stomach.

"You might want to be careful. Crumple-Horned Snorkacks love eating people's eyebrows off, and some have just taken my hooks too."

Malfoy scoffed, a smirk rending his face.

"Is this your guys' version of a threat? No matter how deluded you daffers may be, you can't seriously think I'd ever be threatened by the likes of you?"

Quick as a coin toss, my indifferent expression turned into a hard glare mixed with a smile.

"Not a threat. A friendly warning."

"Yes. It would be a shame for such pretty eyebrows to be wasted as a Snorkacks' meal. But I suppose they got to eat too." Commented Luna as she tucked her magazine away.

By now, all of us probably had less than three minutes to make it to our classes, but that didn't stop Malfoy from flinging one last comment as Luna and I started to walk away.

"Between the two of those idiots, I'd say it's the cat that's got the most brains. But why bother stating the obvious?"

As we turned down an empty corridor, I let out a growl.

"I swear my vengeance on that twit will come in the shape of bubble gum and a fork. He'll never see it coming." I managed to grunt as a slight twitch of annoyance moved my left eyebrow some.

Wow, Malfoy managed to really work me up this time. I was very nearly emoting.

Luna only smiled sweetly.

"You shouldn't let him get to you. He's just upset that his eyebrows are doomed to be eaten."

"Yeah." I sighed, feeling my bored composure come back over me "You're right. As per usual-"

Just then, Echo decided she has had enough affection for one day, and tried to leap away from my vice grip.

She didn't manage to escape me, instead she succeeded in knocking my hands that were panicking to hold her up into Luna's.

For a brief moment, my fingertips brushed against her knuckles, only a feather's touch really.

I stiffened immediately.

_Cold. _

_Laughter. Mean, unkind laughter. _

_Wet._

I shivered. I wanted to run then, but I kept my feet bravely planted where they were. No matter who many hundreds of times this happened to me, it never felt natural.

I feared the day it would.

Luna looked at me, curiosity dulling her eyes with a new shine.

"Vision?" She asked, though her normally sweet tone came with such sympathy that I very nearly gave in to the still strong impulse to run away.

If there was one thing about Luna that I loved and yet wished she would keep to herself, it was her sympathy. I never wanted that from anyone. Ever.

But she asked me what I saw, and as it was with me, I was forced to answer.

"Next hall over, bucket of water poured over your head. A prank by Ravenclaw girls."

See, when I have my…_special needs _moments…visions some like to call them, I have to run away right after I get over being in someone else's brain and future. Or else, it allows said person to ask what's the matter, what did you see, and why are you staring at me you big glow worm. The like.

And then, I am forced to answer.

Always. When someone asks what I see, I am the barrier of bad truth. It's instinct, it's impulsive. It's a curse.

That was another rule from Snape's never ending list when it comes to fresh visions in my brain; do not, repeat, do not willingly tell others their fates if you can prevent it, don't give them the chance to ask you to tell them.

Run, hide, cower, but do not tell others what you have just seen if you can help it. No one should have what's stored for them around the next corner spoiled prematurely; it was just plain rude.

But Luna, with a dazed look and a blinking smile, walked on.

"How thoughtful of them. How did they know that I was feeling a little too warm?"

I sighed again, not from boredom, but from relief. I could always expect Luna to see the bright side of things. She was beautifully blessed that way.

"One of life's great mysteries. May I come with?" I asked, already walking beside her "I may as well make my five yearlong streak of being late on the first day six years running."

"Oh, by all means."

Luna and her placidness were exempt from the rules I had to follow because she herself was so exemptible. But others are not.

They can't handle what happens, and they hate me for when I answer their questions. The rules Snape has are in place because of what I bring.

Sorrow.

I bring nothing but sorrow when I don't follow the rules. It is my name after all. And it's what I do best.

I hate to say I almost enjoy it sometimes.

~o0o~

Well, that's chapter two, and just as I promised, Luna and Draco were featured. I really like writing Luna, as she was one of my favorite characters from the series. And for clarification, the OC's first name is, yes, Sorrow. I know, cheesy, but it comes from the story of Sapsorrow and Straggletag, a beautiful German fairy tale that I adore very much. So, all together, it's Sorrow Evercreech.

Also, as to why Draco is being a bit immature here, not like it's all shocking, and seeking confrontations with a girl he deems insignificant will be explained eventually. There is a reason why he will be forcing interactions between himself and Sorrow.

Now then kiddies, in the next chapter things get interesting as well as heated, and I mean that in a way that you'll all like for I will be earning that M rating of mine. Till then, let your imaginations run naughty (it will be up tomorrow). Toddles.


	3. Bleeding Ears

Chapter 3; Bleeding Ears:

Warning; Rated M for swearing, violence, lemon, and lots of magical wizards and witches with sanity problems. You have been warned…

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series or any of its characters, I am only using them to fulfill my own disillusioned dreams and fan-girl wishes. : P

**Shiny Toy Gun – 'Don't Cry Out'**

~o0o~

It was late, running on midnight I should think. Sitting by the paned window that was by my bed, I gazed out from the lowly view that was granted to those living in the Slytherin House. You know, the Dungeons.

I wish we were higher, then perhaps a short trip out the window might solve my problems.

No, I can't stand heights. Plus, it was raining, and I wouldn't want my freshly squished corpse to get damp. Besides, that wasn't the way I was fated to die.

I would run away. Go live in the forest and become a hermit. That's more or less what I was planning on doing after Hogwarts anyway, so might as well get a nice head start now. The early bird gets the fat, juicy gummy worm after all.

No, no.

Then I would never taste that one of a kind Hogwart's Pumpkin Juice.

Damn. That meant I would have to stay here.

With _Slughorn_ teaching N.E.W.T. level Potions class.

To say it was a shock to me to learn that my favorite Professor Snape had not only been transferred to teaching D.A.D.A., of which I knew he at least would be happy with, but the replacement they got was Slughorn would be an insulting understatement. I was boiling mad. I was mad to begin with, but now it was boiling!

I have never met a more cumbersome git in my entire life.

Except for Umbridge.

And Gilderoy Lockhart.

And Cornelious Fudge-

Okay, there had been a lot of cumbersome gits in my life, but this fat git tried to shake my hand.

Big stupid git.

Apparently, this…Professor I suppose I should call him, was not only was cumbersome, but also liked to surround himself with all the rich, famous, rich, successful, and rich wizards and witches he could get his grubby hands on. Did I mention he liked them rich?

And though I may have forced myself to fade from everyone's attention, my family name still held much meaning. And richness. I wonder if Slughorn knew I had cut myself from my family's endless funds?

Of course, Harry Potter was very popular with him; Slughorn nearly broke his face in half with the grin he had at seeing Potter for the first day of class. Poor Potter, I almost felt sorry for him.

Then again he is a Gryffindor, and I Slytherin. We were not allowed to feel sorry for each other. House rivalry and what not. And he was now doing miraculous at Potions class, where I have been undisputed queen until the 'Prince of Potions' took over. No one does better than me at Potions, not even that Granger girl. I won't allow for it. I will crush him soon.

But my bias for the 'Boy Who Lived' goes deeper than potions and house affiliations. I'm not allowed to have fun with Potter and his friends. One of the rules, don't cha know?

No interfering with their fates.

Even if I had to blind myself from seeing; I could not spoil their futures, no matter what I see. The fate of the wizarding world rested in their hands, and I was not to ruin the outcome of their efforts.

It made me ever so curious though, as I am. Curiouser when Luna became friends with them. I'm not jealous, I am glad she is making more friends, as I remember when she only had me, sitting at the end of the Ravenclaw dining table, smiling and quiet as I, a Slytherin, boldly ate next to her. I was with her when her mother died, when the other students at Hogwarts would pick on her, and now, I was the one who was the most happy that she had more shoulders to lean on and more people to show just how special she was.

I do almost miss the days when it was just us. But friends, however precious, come and go, and I shall hold onto Luna until such time. Enemies, however, accumulate.

Not like I had any. Just annoyances.

Like all the gits teaching at this school. And recently, Malfoy.

Speaking of, Slughorn nearly fainted at seeing Draco in the same class with Potter; double Potions with Gryffindor and Slytherin you see. Double trouble me thinks. But unlike Malfoy's name, which inspired Slughorn's fear, when he heard me introduce myself, I got the opposite reaction.

Ah, always me.

See, for a Pureblood family, mine is one of the nicer ones you'll come across. Sure, all of them, including me, have been in Slytherin, but only a few from the Evercreech family went to work for You-Know-Who, my parents none of them. Made me rather proud of them and feel fuzzy inside, like I swallowed a Wrackspurt that they had been so brave when so many had transfigured themselves into lowly grubs just to survive.

But when that fat oaf, Slughorn, tried to shake my hand, I had to take certain…precautions.

Mainly I slapped him away with my thick Potions book. Repeatedly. I don't think he appreciated it, as I got two weeks detention.

Doesn't matter. I'll be serving detention with Snape, and I could do with a nice, long, bored silent encounter with him writing out hundreds of lines 'I will not abuse my Professors' till my eyes bleed of dullness.

I have missed him so.

…where am I?

Oh yes, by the window that's by my bed, starring out and calculating what appropriate heights are required to break my neck. Or my kneecaps would do just as nicely, then I could miss my Divinations class.

I shouldn't have to explain why Madam Trelawney is also on my list of gits. Her predictions and fortunes are at most cute in how wrong they are. Well, granted, she at least is nice, however annoying. But once my opinion is made about someone, only miracles can change it.

And bribes. Especially bribes that are delicious.

Speaking of miracles, or should I say catastrophes, but Malfoy has been paying attention. Not to his classes, no, for that he has the same bored and scoffing face on.

No, he's been paying attention to me, which is why he is back on my list of tedious annoyances. Paying attention to me is dangerous for anyone except Luna, but with Malfoy, it's just down right annoying how he slithers and creeps around me.

I swear it! I'll be reading a spell book in the library, I'll look up, and he'll be rounding a corner, like he didn't want to be seen. I'll be in class, day dreaming about omelets, and I'll feel a prickling on the back of my neck, I turn, and he's starting at me.

Staring.

Glaring.

Glowering.

Crreeeepppyyy.

Well, okay, that last part was normal. He was always glowering and creepy. But never has his glower been so directed at me. Like I said, he had only recently started this up since Hogwarts began a week ago. Before, he had paid attention to me like any other helpless victim of his numerous targets for his taunts, though Potter, Granger, Longbottom and Weasley were his favorites. But now, I fear I may have joined their ranked status and have earned his unwanted attention.

What's a girl to do? Oh yes, what this girl has always done when she gets into this sort of sticky situation.

Ignore the Heliopath. Yes, that sort of tactic always work. Has worked for me for a very long time. Truly, I do not care for face to face interactions. Things like this do not affect me the same way others are by them. I've seen too much to be put off my rocking horse.

So in comparison, something as spine shivering as Malfoy glaring at the back of my head during Transfigurations is no skin off my ear. Though sometimes he gives me a visceral chill in the guts, but I guess I can't always be stone. Wouldn't that be lovely though?

But at the same time, though already over a week into our year here at Hogwarts, I've noticed he's…different. Since I can't really interact with people, and Luna isn't the best for tid bits of useless curio, my curiosity for gossip and penchants for getting bored easily has forced me to become observant over the years.

Oh yes, I know everything. Not because I can see it with my ears and eyes, but because I love keeping juicy little secrets I snatch from conversations I shouldn't be listening to.

It's the second best thing I'm good at. Sorrow, and then secrets. I just love me a bit of gossip. It's why my hair is so big.

Anygoblins, about Draco and my acute powers of observation. He had been so devil may care last year. And the year before that, and the year before that. In fact, it seemed to me as if Draco Malfoy with his perfect hair and powerful father who was always waiting to hear something had little to no problems.

Until said father was arrested and sent to Azkaban of course. Even without my visions, I could have seen that one coming.

Now, back here at Hogwarts, Draco never laughed. While his friends jeered and taunted any and all little tykes they could, his heart was no longer into the bullying he once prided himself on. With the exception of me and Luna's incident that first day back, of which there hadn't been a repeat or even attempt. I dare say Hogwarts may be with one less sneering and ruthlessly mocking Slytherin. Not even Potter managed to grab his snide attention.

He was so serious now, so focused on the little dark, naughty thoughts in his head. Besides staring at the back of my hair, he would just stare off into space, lost and looking so brow furrowing.

Eating less, talking less, and paler than any corpse had the right to be, it seemed to me that Draco may be less than happy. It is very disquieting for Draco Malfoy to be so…quiet. I bet he is up to something.

Hope it doesn't involve me.

Or Nargles.

Well, what's it matter? Maybe is he following me, maybe he isn't. In the end, it's just Draco. I will not have my insanity turn into paranoia if I can help it, so I'll just put the palling creature out of my mind. Besides, the worst he could ever manage on me would be to disarm my delicate female sensibilities with his run on mouth and drab taste in all things black. Of which I have nothing delicate whatsoever about me, so ha! Hooves on the other shoe.

Still, the thoughts of a possibly scheming Malfoy left me with the hoo-hahs and spine shivers.

No, wait, that last one was a draft.

By Salazar, have I really become so depressing? Gits, jumping out of windows, a paler Malfoy, my, my, my. I so needed to start thinking about sunshine and roses, or else I fear I may be mad and sad all together. And that wouldn't do. Mmh, I made a rhyme as well. That would not do either.

The thin glass window that barely blocked the fall weather that fogged outside in the night began to make me quiver harder with cold, and so I reluctantly climbed into bed.

I don't sleep much. If at all. See, I did so ingenious on my O.W.L.S. last year, despite Umbridge's attempt to teach us nothing, because I studied all my nights away. I could take it, I've haven't needed more than four hours sleep in as twice as many years.

Haven't needed, and didn't want. Everyone dreams, but they are a part of the dreamer's own little world.

Not mine.

I dream of what I have seen, my visions of futures, and their never about mine. Except for the one, but why would I want to dream about the day I die? Not exactly the thing needed for a good beauty rest.

With all the muddled thoughts I have stirred up, I was in great need of something warm to cuddle. It was in moments like these other people would go find their mother to hug or their friend to sit up in bed with them chatting, but I don't have such luxury. Not like I'm moping. I never mope.

Not a moper bone in this body. Lots of lonely bones though…lovely lonely bones. Looney, lovely, lonely bones. Say that three times fast.

Er, what was I thinking? Oh.

But, moping or not, which I am _not_, I wanted something warm and fuzzy to purr in my ear. Groping about in the dark, I tried to feel for that familiar soft fur of my familiar. Animals were never subjugated to my _special needs_, and so I often sought them out whenever I felt the need to touch something, anything, that was living. Of course, the animals weren't as fond of me as I was of them. Except Echo. Sometimes. When I had treats for her.

When nothing but cotton sheets met my hands, I once more slid out of bed.

After peering underneath beds and behind still unpacked trunks, I went out into the common room. Sometimes Echo liked to sleep by the open green flames that blazed from the fireplace, but she could not be found there either.

The steps I took with my bare feet sounded as loud as a Screaming Yo-Yo from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes as I went on looking for Echo in the eerily still dungeon. I love that shop. Even though I cannot interact with them, their affiliation was with Potter after all, the twins are such lovely little jokesters in my opinion.

Just then, as I started to think about how many Rubby O'Chickens I wanted to buy next time I went to Diagon Alley, I spotted a quick flash of white tail.

"Echo?"

I went over to where I had seen it disappear; right up the stairs that led to the boys dorms. I hesitated, but started to climb up. I bet anything my cat was playing a game with me right now, wanting to get back at me for shooing Crookshanks away earlier today.

I paused once more at reaching a door that led to one of the many rooms the boys shared, the door slightly open. I knew girls were allowed in the boys' rooms any hour, but why the Gringotts would I want to go inside one of them?

A meow from inside motivated me enough to dare though. If I didn't get Echo out now, she might be found by one of the not so nice Slytherin boys before the morning. This little joke of my cat's had gone too far now, but by bubble gum I could never let her get hurt. I paid ten galleons for her!

"Echo, where are you?" I called out softly, so softly it might have been the tickle of a feather.

I creaked my way around the closed curtain beds. What a lovely shade of green they were. Though, the smell of sweat and boyhood ruined any and every lovely thing there was in the room; of which there were none besides the curtains. I swear, why can't boys just be cleanly? It's not that hard, and I think girls happen to like the kind of boy who knew that moldy pudding rings do not belong on a night stand.

"If you don't come out right now," I whispered harshly as I began to check under the beds "I swear I will feed you to the next Dabberplimp I see."

I then caught a peek again of that white tail I had been looking for briefly, it ducking under the one bed I hadn't checked yet.

As I walked on, I felt as if I had walked through something. Some magically something. Like a silencing charm that had been placed around the bed. Or perhaps someone had just freshly cast Muffliato on everyone else in the room, which I know because I know everything, except not. Like I said, everyone else it was cast over, expect for one singular individual plus me.

One singular individual who was making a lot of moaning noises from the bed Echo just happened to slip under. Perhaps they were sick? Probably a first year over stuffing themselves on the boundless bounty of dinner here at Hogwarts. First years never learn moderation quickly enough to save themselves in time.

But if they were sick, then they may be awake, so I made my creeping quieter, and crouched down beside the bed. Luckily, the curtains were drawn on all sides, so whoever was in the bed could not see me.

Seeing Echo further under than I thought, I went alongside the bed.

I could see the blue of my cats eyes, and I stretched a hand towards her as I pressed myself to the floor.

"Echo, come on." I called softly, barely whispering.

"Ooh…fuck…" My cat growled.

No, wait a second.

"Echo?" I asked as quietly as I could, brows lowering in confusion "Since when do you speak English? And just where did you pick up that sort of dirty language?"

Just then, in the bed that was now above me, something shifted. A lot of somethings shifted actually, as the whole bed nearly rocked forward. The sick person moaned again, only this time louder. A lot louder and clearer.

"Draco…ooh…Draco!"

Oh, crumbs.

"Beg for it."

"Please, I be…beg you. I-I-I need you. Ooh, ah! Aaahh…"

"I don't believe you. Try again."

"P-please…I can't, can't…OH GOD!"

For the first time I could ever recall, I felt my cheeks burn with red. Is this what a blush felt like? I didn't like it. It felt...what is the word? Embarrassing? I never felt embarrassment before. Not even when water was dumped on me by Slytherin boys my first year here or that time some Hufflepuff girls complimented my Christmas sweater vest. Damn those nice, polite Hufflepuff girls!

The noises above me continued, and to my horror I found I couldn't move. I could only listen, and have my ears assailed. They'll probably start bleeding soon. Yes, bleeding ears would be nice. It would muffle Malfoy's tuneful grunts some.

Huh, good thing no one could read my mind. That almost sounded like a compliment.

The bed above me rocked again and a particularly long, unrestricted groan that made me shiver by the brutality of it was emitted. That moan had to belong to Malfoy, I thought. My mind whirled with panic, but as Malfoy groaned again, an image was painted in my ever busy imagination. One of pale muscles stretching over broad shoulders, a light sheen of sweat trailing down from them to rhythmic hips that moved so sinfully to the moans. Moved to Malfoy's moans.

Oh Snorkacks, I can't be thinking this! It's too…disgusting! Yes! That's it. Absolutely disgusting.

Actually, it really was, as I could feel a gag work its way up my throat, and I clamped my jaw tight to keep in the sick.

I had enough of this. With one last strain and a particularly harsh tug on Echo's tail, I managed to wrap the white puff ball in my arms before she could so much hiss at my rough actions.

Standing very, very carefully up, I made plans to tip toe a few steps away before bolting. My silhouette would not be caught since the rainstorm outside cast a thick darkness for me to hide in, so I would be in the clear. They would never know I was even here-

"Hey, what the…" A weary, feminine voice started to complain only to trail off. My eyes widened to see that, in Echo's fury at having been grabbed so roughly, her claws struck out, hooking onto the bed curtains instead of me. My cat always had poor aim. Can't catch mice to save her life. But that shouldn't be what I needed to be thinking on.

I should be thinking on how, spread before me now, was the view of an image that would burn my brain forever. With a large chested girl panting and glaring at me beneath him, Malfoy turned to face me, his perfect hair cast over his dark eyes. Those perfect ice grey eyes.

It was obvious that he and the girl beneath him were completely stark, but a blanket that barely clung to Malfoy's sculpted hips kept the worst out of sight. His chest however wasn't. His perfect, toned, carved chest that flexed wickedly with every strained breath he took.

I felt that blush from before come back a thousand fold, and I wished the floor had teeth so it could swallow me.

"Evercreech?" Malfoy called out quietly in the dark, surprise wrinkling those lovely eyebrows as he stared back at me.

Him saying my last name so breathlessly, his lips parted to greedily take in more air in his state of near sated desire. It…had an effect. Not sure if I liked it but it was effectual. And I wanted to hear it again.

"Heh. Uh, s-sorry." With that, I made my first apology in five years. Sad that such a momentous occurrence had to be wasted on this situation.

The two, Malfoy and his mysterious girl who I really didn't want to know the name of, kept staring and glaring at me. Run, just run. Move your left foot, then your right, and go, I kept thinking. It did no good, my legs just wouldn't move.

"If it makes you two feel any better," I whispered to break the silence as Echo squirmed harder in my arms "I plan on gauging my eyeballs out as soon as possible. So please, excuse-"

With that, I finally found the wherewithal to run. Only, it wasn't thanks to me legs. It was my upchuck reflex.

With the bitter taste of disgust wrenching itself into my mouth, I tore out of there like someone had set my nightgown on fire. I wish it was, that might help me forget the horror I had just witnessed. But I knew nothing would. For one thing, Malfoy undoubtedly wouldn't let me as he was probably cooking up a thousand schemes this very minute to wreak revenge on me for having ruined his, uh, fun.

I just pray none of them involve Nargles. Dear Salazar, may none of them involve Nargles!

~o0o~

Told you. I told you I would be earning that M rating. Though rated M for swearing and violence as well as lemon, there hasn't been much swearing, has there? Don't worry fellow potty mouths, you'll get plenty of foulness from Draco once he starts becoming a bigger part of the picture. Which should be in the next chapter actually!

Also, I would like to tell you all that I will be explaining why Sorrow sees what she sees, and I mean why she sees major things like death that will not be for years to come or painless pranks about to happen in two minutes. It will be mentioned later, but for now, just roll with it.

Toodles tots. Be naughty for me till we meet again.

And yes, that was a Mean Girls reference in there. I couldn't help myself. The next chapter may be up in a day or two, as I have an exam to take care of tomorrow. Toddles!


	4. Complications

Chapter 4; Complications:

**Reese Potter - ** Thanks, I had myself a bit of a giggle fit while writing that bit. And thank you so much!

**Guest #1 – **You know who you are, and whoever you are, I thank you! Your comment was really sweet, and made me all blushy. I hope to live up to your expectations.

**Kyonsonlygurl – **It's nice to see you again! And no need to worry, spicy spiciness will happen. Oh, so much of it will happen (BTW, I am still working on my other stories, so no need to worry there)!

**Becky – **Dooh, thank you! Gosh, all this blushing today, I might need to by a new set of cheekbones.

**Lovellady – **Interesting name, and thank you for your opinion. As for what will happen to poor Sorrow, well, lets read and find out!

**We start out a bit morbid here in this chapter as we get a bit more of Sorrow's unstable and dark side, which is why I suggest the song I suggest. This first section is a bit long, but it establishes more of Sorrow's character and also some of her past. But then we get a bit of a naughty Malfoy, so tehe. Enjoy kiddies!**

**Placebo 'Meds'**

~o0o~

A surprisingly warm sun accompanied me out to my usual early morning visit to Black Lake. In its usually murky appearance the lake reflected the cloudless sky, a mirror of light blue that gave hint to the beginnings of a most beautiful day here at Hogwarts.

Stirring a ripple through the surprisingly lukewarm lake water with my bare feet as they dangled off of the dock I had come to claim as my own, I pondered, as I usually ponder.

I wonder if today will be the day I drown? Snorkacks, I hope so. It'd be such a beautiful day to die.

You know, before Malfoy gets to me.

I considered many things last night, lying awake in my bed worrying over what Malfoy will throw at me come the approaching morning. My imagination went a little wild in my slightly panicked state about what the no doubt infuriated boy would do to me. But whatever it would be, it would never be good.

Or painless.

I even started writing out a letter to Luna in case he left my corpse in such an unrecognizable manner.

"Dear Luna, look in the closet in D.A.D.A.! class Whatever you find remaining, please donate to Muggle science." or "Dearest Lovegood. Malfoy is to blame for whatever has befallen me! Farewell…P.S. I leave my collection of wine corks to you. Use them well."

Eventually though, I stopped thinking so depressedly. Why was I letting this get to me? The most Malfoy could do to anyone was perhaps a little silly boils causing curse here or a incredibly painful paralyzing jinx there.

On second thought…that all sounded pretty bad.

Well, if he managed to cook up something equally or more terrible, I would welcome it. Anything to get out of Divinations. Today we are to study Astrological signs.

Ugh.

But even if it wasn't for the possibility of missing Divinations, I wasn't really worried. Not truly. Curious at most. The boy was actually quite good at coming up with terrible jinxes, sadly none of them involving chocolate. But I could use a bit of entertainment, even at my own expense.

See, when you know what I know, which is practically everything, you tend to get bored with a few things. Like life in general. It just doesn't surprise you, or at least, not very well. Neither do the people who play their parts in it.

You should know something. Life, fate, destiny, it's all very, very tedious. And there's not a thing you can do about it. You, me, we're all trapped in what will and has to be.

It's why I'm always so gore ram bored!

Take this Malfoy incident for example. It doesn't matter if I linger on it and think "There must have been something I could have done to have avoided that?" But I would know that not to be true. Or "With my visions, surely I should have seen this coming, and changed the future to not be scarred for life with the image of Malfoy naked burning my retinas?"

Also not true. I know better than anyone else, the future can never, ever be changed.

Take Cedric Diggory for example.

Ah yes, poor Cedric Diggory. It was he who really opened my meek little eyes up, back in my first year of Hogwarts.

Back then, when I was a wee little girl of eleven, I saw something very interesting. I was walking to class with friends. I know, friends, plural.

I was very unpopular as a child, not even the neighbor's kids imaginary friends wanted to befriend me. I have to admit, it kind of hurt, though I did have Luna. But in my first year of Hogwarts, I had a chance to start over and make the right impression, and I wanted to take every advantage of that. The other students seemed to like my just fine, even if they did find it odd how I never shook hands, or hug, or how I wouldn't let the other girls braid my hair.

Then the…accident happened. I tripped, as I am so oft to do. Right there in the hall. And Cedric Diggory caught me.

Poor, polite, handsome Cedric Diggory caught me, and I saw him die.

Murdered, by a Killing Curse sent from You-Know-Who's own wand.

The images I saw all those years ago still wait for me when I risk closing my eyes to sleep. Cedric, just standing there, feeling victory over having grabbed the Goblet of Fire with that promising Potter boy, and just a bit curious as to why the Goblet had been made a Port Key.

And then, nothing. He was just gone.

Before Cedric, I had never witnessed death by the suddenness that was the Killing Curse. To see something so full of young life and then in a beat of a terrified heart, gone. Empty, stiff, as if there had never been any life in his body to begin with. Like he had been a fleshy doll this whole time whose strings were finally cut.

I'd seen people die before then, plenty of times, but none in such a horrible way as that.

I saw Luna's mother die when I first became friends with Luna. I saw my mother lying in a bed, terminal and breathing her last in some very distant year I was blessed with not being certain on.

And I saw myself die.

I will drown. I've seen it.

One day, rather soon I suppose since I am close in age to what I had envisioned, I will drown in some unknown body of water. I saw myself sinking in, not even thrashing. Just sinking, and then, bobbing lifelessly, body limp in the water.

I don't know how I ever came to see it, or through who, but I know it's true, and I know one day it will come true, just like all my other visions have.

I eagerly look forward to it.

It's why I come out here, every morning, sometimes at night too. It's not for the view. It's to allow fate to take its course should it chose to this very morning. All fate has to do is make me lean in a little father out, and I will sink as it wishes me too.

I've been prepared to die for almost as long as I can remember, going so far as to refuse learning how to swim.

Rather morbid if you think about it.

I know what you are thinking. Couldn't I have stopped it, Cedric Diggory's unfair death? Couldn't I have saved those people? Can't I even save myself?

I don't know how to tell you this, but no. Plain and simple. No.

You can tell them every last detail like I did for Luna's mother, asking her not to leave Luna as if it was as simple as that. But she will still die. You can beg your favorite uncle each and every morning not to go to the Ministry of Magic for his job because you know he will be killed on his way to work one day, but he will still go, and he will still die. You can yell and plead with a total stranger not to turn that one corner because a Muggle truck will lose control and take her, but it will still happen.

Right before your very eyes, it will still happen.

There is nothing anyone can do. There has never been anything I've seen that I could change no matter what I said. Not once.

After seeing what was to come for Cedric, I of course reacted in a way even the best of us would given such circumstances.

I screamed.

I screamed and I screamed and I screamed as the images of Cedric's last moments burned in my brain until Professor Snape took me away from the circle of curious, wide eyed students that had gathered around my flailing commotion.

People avoided me after that. Not because they were _all_ cruel and thought me a freak, though most did, but because Snape and the other professors thought it best to warn the other students to leave me alone.

Sure, that raised some questions, but overall the student body obeyed. The only exception was Luna, for she was already aware of my special needs and smiled through the worst of it.

Thankfully the poor, sweet Cedric Diggory never got his chance to ask about what I saw, being ignorant that I kept his dying secret in my mind over the years. I, and Snape, who I cried out to. He stopped me before I could give details, not wanting to bear the entire burden like I had to, but he knew the boy's life was to be cut short.

He also knew there was nothing to do but wait and let it happen, which is why no one but us knew. There was no reason to tell Dumbledore or even poor handsome Cedric.

Even though his death replayed in my mind plenty of times over the years, to the point where I couldn't be in the same room as him, I made certain I wasn't anywhere near when Potter dragged back his corpse.

But it happened, just like I said it would. Port Key and all.

I didn't shed a tear for him when Dumbledore held the service. Mainly because I couldn't. From the day I saw him die, for the first time, I decided I could no longer afford to live in the world. Just on it. It was too unbearably painful otherwise.

That's what the dear dead boy opened my eyes to those many years ago, and for it am I grateful.

That day I made my own addition to Snape's rules for myself. No one. I will need no one, ever. Even Snape and Dumbledore have been made expendable to me.

I have cut all ties, brutally in the case of my family. They loved me, which is why I hurt them in order to ensure they would keep away from me. Thankfully, people find it very hard to look at you after you've told them how they're going to die. So no silly family reunions or tacky Christmas cards for me!

Even Luna one day, I will leave her behind. I can't stay around people who are kind and hopeful for very long, and she is full of both. I can't stay around people like that because I am not as they are. Not anymore at least.

I am naughty, and I am cruel because I hate people to their very core. I don't know how far past the point of caring for my fellow beings I am, but I know I am past it.

They have become nothing but pain and inconvenience for me at the best of times, filling my head with screams and weeping visions! Even Luna and Snape, however kind they are towards me, tear my mind apart with just the brush of a hand!

Because of the futures I see, I cannot live, stranger's lives replying over and over in my head like broken records.

For each vision I see, I feel as well. The sensations and emotions, whether good or bad, that await the individual I came into contact with become mine in that instant, and I become someone else for a moment.

So when Cedric was killed in my mind, I died with him. I felt the Killing Curse. It was the same for when Luna's mother died, or my uncle, or that one stranger. I felt them all die while they still breathed.

Have you ever died? I have, seventy three times, each death coming in an array of colors and terrors that I get to relive each time I try to sleep.

It is because of this, that I look forward to the day I drown, finally able to know what absolute silence feels like as water slips down into my lungs.

Perhaps then I may know peace. But I must wait; like I said, you can't change fate, and worse, you can't rush it.

This is the joy of knowing. The joy of being me.

...yippy?

So…honestly, in retrospect, whatever Malfoy has to throw at me isn't so bad by comparison. In fact, it would be a pleasant distraction form all this death and gloom that hangs over my pretty little head. Guess it's safe to go to breakfast then.

Goodness, all this morbidity has certainly wet my appetite!

I hope their serving scones today…

o0o

They weren't serving scones. It was oatmeal. Lumpy, gray oatmeal. Fate has once more decided to be unyieldingly cruel.

I sat there at the far end of the Slytherin table, rather broken hearted over the whole affair. I thought it best not to eat with Luna as I always did, not wanting to risk having Malfoy's wrath spread to her should he chose to invoke it this morning.

Without Luna around through, I kept twitching at every sound and stir. The Great Hall was not my fondest place here in Hogwarts. It was always so crowded that I got nervous, and if it wasn't for Luna's calm composure, I wouldn't even be able to eat.

The Great Hall was just a breeding ground for trouble, people bumping into each other everywhere, and even with Luna, I didn't show up for most of the meals. It would cause me too many heart attacks trying to watch out for three meals a day every day to make sure I didn't touch anyone by accident.

Yet just another reason I despise people; they keep me from getting too fat.

So, I sat alone, not really hungry and bored. Well, not entirely along. I had Echo with me, squirming in my lap.

"Echo, come on. Stop squirming and eat your breakfast." The white cat bat the spoon full of lumpy oatmeal away, and I huffed.

"Look, one of us has to eat this, and it's not gonna be me!"

With one more squirm, Echo freed herself, prancing up onto the table. Giving me a cat eye glare, she strut off, tail high in the air with indignity.

"Fine. Be that way. Run off to your poofy lover cat. Just know he'll never have my blessing!" I called out after her, earning a few stares.

I ate slowly, nibbling from every platter laid out in front of me. With no one sitting at the end of the table, I had everything to myself, just the way I liked it.

Sadly, after a while, my stomach got full, and I had to entertain myself since Echo wasn't around to poke. I ended up twirling my wand through my fingers, cursing each time I dropped it.

Truth be told, I am quite handy with a wand, present situation not applicable of course. Luna herself was quite an exceptional dueler, and when she became a part of 'Dumbledore's Army' during the Umbridge incident last year, she took time to teach me a trick or two whenever we went out to Black Lake together.

She wiped the dock with me, but I still learned plenty. I do know everything after all, so it makes sense that I am good at everything too. Except synchronized swimming, that's a complete mystery to me.

But a wizard is only as good as their wand, as some mislead person would tell you, and my wand is very good indeed. Got is from Ollivander's, yes I did! You know, before he went missing...

I remember him explaining to me what each component of my wand meant when it started to shine after he delicately placed it in my hands.

_"Oak signifies wisdom, endurance, protection, and authority. Your unicorn's tail hair core means that you are pure of heart and care deeply for your loved ones. Both potential for power and healing lays in this wand…I'd be very careful as to which one you chose to develop more."_

Sure, sounds all mysterious and impressive, but I was sort of too strung out from getting my first wand to really listen to the old wand maker. Though one thing stuck to me throughout the years.

Pure of heart? Loved ones? Meaning the people I creep away from by tattle-tailing their deaths and making myself emotionally distant? Well, perhaps this wand wasn't the one for me, but I'm gonna keep it. No take backsies!

Great, now my pumpkin juice tasted like guilt.

I could sit and stew about the possible non-existence of my conscience, but I became just slightly preoccupied when Malfoy suddenly sat down right across the Slytherin table from me, his puppet pals lined up behind him.

"Good morning Evercreech. Pleasant dreams?" Greeted the fair haired boy, the smirk of the devil on his face.

I guess he could be the actual devil, seeing as he was about to partake in a gleeful taunting at my expense. No, Beelzebub's voice is deeper and he doesn't have a British accent.

"All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." Was all I replied with in return, staring off past Malfoy's head to settle on a point on the wall, sipping my pumpkin juice idly.

If I made eye contact with him, I just might blush again with the thoughts of him and his doings last night. The image of him sweating, hair cast down over his lust-filmed eyes, with strained muscles shifting in sinful rhythm…

God, I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

"Well, last night I myself had a very pleasant…_rest_. Best I've ever had in fact." Malfoy finally responded with, and a wave of sneakers went through Malfoy's crowd at his oh so clever euphemism.

All except Pansy. Poor girl. The feminine company Malfoy kept last night was probably news to her, since I doubt Malfoy bragged about his conquests to his male mates when she was around. I knew she had some sort of feelings for Malfoy. Whether it was feelings for the power of his family name or for him, I didn't care.

"Though, I got to wonder," Malfoy then leaned in, grabbing my attention against my will "was it good for you too Evercreech?"

I only blinked and sipped my pumpkin juice. If you lie still enough, the common bully will move onto more amusing prey. Course, Malfoy was anything but common.

"Did you enjoy what you saw last night, sneaking into the boys' dorm?" Malfoy sneered in, disgust it seems to me. Well it was understandable, given that I _was_ in the boys' dorm whilst they were all sleeping. Or having sex. Either way, still pretty bad no matter how you look at it.

"Knew there was sometin' wrong with this freak. Creepin' in our rooms at night. Bet she does it all the time." Said Crabbe, his speech impeded by his chubby cheeks. His aunts must love pinching them.

"And why shouldn't she? She obviously likes what she sees." Said some other Slytherin boy, Pike I think. He gave me his version of a sly wink, and I set down the pumpkin juice; its disrespectful to continue to sip it when I feel sick.

"Perhaps she feels she needs more attention, eh? Is that it Evercreech? You need some attention twixt your nethers so you spy on us handsome gents?"

I rolled my eyes behind closed lids at Goyle's unpoetic use of the word 'twixt'.

I don't need romance or intimacy. I have a cat!

Plus, the idea of letting someone touch me was…problematic at best. I wasn't able to have a relationship with anyone for long on an emotionally platonic level. To add romance or even a physical element to such would, well, it would be a disaster, that's what it would be! Just one giant, painful twister of disaster.

"She gets plenty of attention. From herself." Said Pansy, sneering. "Freak moans all the time at night. Hardly can get any sleep from all the racket."

_That_ grabbed the boys' attention, and in an instant they were asking Pansy all kinds of questions. It just so happened that the room I shared with four others included Pansy, joy of joys. Though, I don't see what my moaning and screaming from my constant nightmares has to do with anything–

Oh. Oh! I get it! …I think.

Just about to dislocate my jaw from yawning so hard as the boys' continued to bother Pansy, I was brought back to the conversation of me when Pike started to beg.

"Come on Pans, tell us more."

"She calls out all these names when she does _it_. Maybe you heard of a few of them? Jibs, Garry, _Molly_." That last name stirred up a whole chorus of smirks and 'oohs', the boys' imaginations running wild with lewd possibilities. Pansy went on. "Markus, Anthony, Cedric-"

"That rotting Hufflepuff? Poor taste Evercreech, poor taste." Interrupted Malfoy, who not once had looked away from me. His grey eyes were going to burn a hole in my head if he continued to glare at me.

I glared right back. I found myself growing angry. Cedric's death was one of the worst that haunted me, and the poor handsome boy meant a lot to me, if just for the way he affected my life. He did not deserve to be made slight of by the likes of these idiots.

But anger is not a luxury I can afford, so I settled for returning Malfoy's glare, my brows furrowing.

"She sneaks out a lot too." Pansy said, wanting to bring the boys' attention back onto her "Never knew where she would creep off to, but I guess we all do now."

"We all knew you had problems, but this?" Malfoy shook his head as if in disappointment, stirring up his bed of perfect blonde locks. "Never once suspected you'd be _this_ interesting."

I kept my hands clasped before me on the table, not bothering to remove my eyes from Malfoy's gaze. Though he seemed, for the moment, like his old, bullying and admirably power-abusing self. But there was something in those ice grey eyes, something that spoke truth.

Malfoy's heart, like I had guessed before, just wasn't quite into tormenting. It seemed he was forcing himself to do this. A mask was what he wore. And a very good one at that. Bet he was a devil at the bridge table.

What was it that distracted him from enjoying his taunts? What made him so ashen pale with worry? Why am I wondering this when there's a plate of bacon in front of me?

"If you wanted a peek at me, why didn't you ever ask Evercreech?" Malfoy continued, his smirk coming back "I could take personal requests. Put on a _really_ good show for you."

His eyes then raked over my body then, becoming intense in their stare as that confounded blush came back to my cheeks. Damn it! Damn it, damn it! He can't be getting to me! Nothing gets to me! I'm emotionally dead inside and proud of it!

"Nothing to say? No naughty little wishes in that empty head of yours? Or maybe your ears don't work so well."

Malfoy leaned in closer then, about ready to repeat his taunt when I nodded.

"They work. Too bad my nose works just fine as well." I finally spoke, scrunching my nose up some.

"What you about freak?" Asked Crabbe, and I smiled at my beloved nickname.

"Bad manners reek. And the foul air surrounding you genteelly men can't be good for my lungs."

I stood up, and Malfoy did so too. It seemed that he was not quite satisfied with the slim amount of humiliation he and his gang were able to give me over this matter. That made my smile widen.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to line up my school books alphabetically according to height."

As I turned to walk off, already considering that I could miss Ancient Runes for a well-deserved nap, when something grabbed my wrist.

_Someone _grabbed my wrist.

Hair flying in all directions as I wildly turned my head to face who would be tormenting me with visions, I was shocked to see it was Malfoy, his grip leaning over the table.

A wave of relief went through me to see that my long button down shirt sleeve guarded me from making contact for Malfoy's pale skin. No visions for me then. But that relief was shooed away when Malfoy pulled me closer to him, forcing me to lean some over the table.

"Just remember Evercreech, if you ever get the itch to come watch me play, knock first. You could join in." He whispered with a smirk. His hand clasped harder in its grip on my wrist, and in an instant I knew that this act was no longer to tease me.

He was watching, his eyes wandering over my face as if to gauge my reaction. He was evaluating me, for what, I didn't know.

All I knew was that unless I do something drastic, I was in a heap of inconvenience. With a hard, desperate yank, I managed to free my hand, the action hurting me somewhat.

I sucked in a deep breath.

"Don't you dare touch me! Don't any of you EVER dare touch me!" I screamed, Malfoy becoming a bit surprised by my drastic reaction.

I needed to make a point, I needed to scare them off. Easier said than done, so I kept going. I kept my words flowing, my anger rising as I did so.

"You disgust me! You're all so disgusting, I'd rather have Nargles clouding my brain then spend a minute alone with any of you!"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Snape rise from his seat at the head table. It seemed my screaming interrupted his breakfast and he was coming over to break up this little confrontation. Thank Gringotts. Until he got here though, I was on my own, and so, I had to continue to improvise.

Unfortunately, I don't think on my feet well, so I just started shouting the first things that came to my mind, my eyes locked on Malfoy's slightly astonished, but mostly amused, ones.

"Low, foul smelling, imbecilic pink-tufted trolls! You soft headed thickwits make me proud that I have never and will never take part in any sort of passionate coercion with anyone!"

Silence was met to the echo of my shrieks, except by a few forks being dropped as the entire hall remained quiet. Had I been shouting so loudly? Huh, didn't know my voice could carry out that well. But I guess when you–

Wait a minute…did I…?

I did, didn't I?

I prayed my choice of words might be above everyone's, especially Malfoy's gain, vocabulary skills. It seemed to be, for a moment all I got was very blank stares from Crabbe and Pike.

I would have been able to walk out scotty free if it wasn't for that damn Pansy.

"You've…never had sex Evercreech?" Said Pansy, bring a hand to her mouth to stifle a high pitched squealing sound that I guess was her laugh, she very amused and absolutely disgusted at the same time.

Slowly, smirks and chuckles were bubbling forth from Malfoy's gang whilst I was reduced to blinking, my mouth hanging open slightly like a gagging bass.

As something of an uproar was on the verge of occurring in the Great Hall, Snape descended on the students, cuffing them out here and there, whether Slytherin or not.

Eyes wide with embarrassment, a feeling that was sadly becoming familiar to me, I sulked out towards class.

Oh Satyrs, what had I done? I just gave Malfoy and his puppets free fuel for the fire.

…maybe tomorrow will be the day I drown? Please?

~o0o~

With Sorrow, we'll get a bit of a switch back and forth between her somewhat sane side and her really deep, dark, and frankly depressing side. I quite like the contrast of her character, and I believe she will offset Draco well. Anyhoo, the "All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." Bit was a quote from Edgar Allan Poe. I feel his work is greatly appreciated by Muggles and Wizards alike.

Uh-oh, with Sorrow having revealed this intimate secret of hers, what will happen? Bad things, many bad things will happen, that's what!

Next chapter (which will be up tomorrow) will have a bit of Sorrow and Malfoy interacting as well as a large chunk dedicated to Malfoy's perspective as circumstances start to fall into place.


	5. Place Your Bets

Chapter 5; Place Your Bets:

**In this chapter, we will get a bit of Draco's perspective as things are put into place. For this beginning bit though, we get more of Sorrow and her new trouble, mainly Malfoy's attention! Then, we get an explanation for why Malfoy has been paying so much attention to Sorrow…enjoy!**

**Thank you reviewers, I would write to your personally, but I have class in a few minutes, so once more, thank you!**

**Fall Out Boy 'I Don't Care' **

~o0o~

You know how I said I never got embarrassed?

Well, I don't still. Mostly. Partially. Not enough to give most people the satisfaction they're looking for whenever they nudge insults my way as I walk down the halls.

_"Pervert."_

From the Slytherin boys' perspective, I guess I was. But I knew what really happened, so it doesn't matter.

_"Virgin."_

Eh, why get mad at the truth?

_"Hoe."_

Now that's just plain rude. I am not a gardening implement.

_"Voyeur." _

Okay, I actually don't know what that last one means, but I'm pretty sure it's not very nice. Maybe I can ask Snape what it means when I see him tonight for detention.

Over the course of three days since the incident in the Great Hall, nearly all of Slytherin, boys and girls alike, had ganged up on me for the purposes of tormenting me via jeers or tripping me in the halls.

Never had so many paid attention to me at once; I feel so singled out and special! Bless my peers!

Still, it was a huge inconvenience. I felt it best that I fell back into my childhood habit of wearing thin, black leather gloves at all times. They reduced the chances of my accidently making skin contact with another, plus fully buttoned shirts, long sleeves, tightly wound scarves, wool cap, the works. Good thing I already was thought insane, or else my attire might seem a tad suspicious.

I was not going to risk seeing something I didn't want the burden of seeing because of this new game of torment Sorrow all of Slytherin is playing.

Just cause I sneak into the boys' dormitory at night, and just because I am a virgin due to unfortunate circumstances of fate, and just because I interrupted Malfoy during his heated moment of debauchery, I have to pay!

Well, truly if I cared, I could bring this situation up to Dumbledore, though I wouldn't be sure how to explain the whole Malfoy having debauchery bit.

Along with making a promise to protect and teach me, the Headmaster also promised that the moment I found my secret in danger of being discovered, or the tax of living with so many others presented to much a danger for me, that I could leave Hogwarts. I could leave whenever I wished, all I needed was just one excuse.

Being singled out for shaming by all of Slytherin seemed like a good excuse….

On second thought, no. There are not many things in my life that matter anymore, family, morals, etc. But Hogwarts was my home, or at least the only place I could associate with that word. I needed to stay, cause outside of it, I don't have a life.

I don't have one in Hogwarts either, but at least amongst all the hum and drum of homework and exams it's easier to pretend that I do.

Oh well. This will all pass. It always does, as I know from experience and my vast intellect. Just have to ride it out without any major incident or trouble.

Easier said than done. Today is potions with Slughorn. I wonder if the bruises I gave him have stopped swelling?

Of course, there was someone worse than Slughorn who was awaiting me in potions, and said person was now leaning against my table, smirking over my pewter cauldron.

"I noticed you haven't been visiting the boys dormitory lately Evercreech. Something wrong?" Malfoy greeted, his ice blue eyes looking a little shrunken into his skull since last I'd seen him.

Goblins, he really needed to get some sleep.

Having refused to engage him and the others since the Great Hall, Malfoy was met only with silence from me, but he persisted through it.

"Don't tell me you've gotten bored watching us?"

I tapped my gloved fingers against the table boredly. Was there any way he could speed this along? I need to start planning how I am going to wipe the floor with Harry Potter, who was _still_ doing better at potions than I!

"Aw, come on babe. Don't act that way. Haven't you been missing the sight of me?" Malfoy, in a ploy to get my attention, made to grab my hand.

Pulling away sharply, I gave him an indifferent glare to which he replied with an annoyed look. What, did he want to grab my hand that bad? Well then, made me all the happy to deny the pleasure!

"Like a toothache." I growled.

_Babe?_ Where in the name of Salazar did he get off calling me _babe_? I'm a grown woman! Well, almost grown.

Nargles, he was doing it again. Getting me to _feel_ anything, let alone anger, was a great accomplishment, but Malfoy was making me verge on fury. Damn it, I hate being made to emote! More importantly, why was _Malfoy _of all people one of the only few to get me too then?!

Breathe. Calm down. Take comfort in that he looks like a walking skeleton that still somehow managed to have perfect hair every minute of the day.

I wonder how long he brushes it? Or does he…

"So if you're not visiting me anymore, have you found a new favorite then? I feel hurt Evercreech." Sighed Malfoy, shaking his head some.

He could put up all the dramatics he wanted, but one thing bothered me. It was obvious, to me, that Malfoy's heart really wasn't into this whole tiff for tat.

When villains no longer take enjoyment from their torments, well then, what is the point of life? All of it, from his tone to his smirk, it seemed forced, and it almost saddened me to see someone so masked up.

Well, _almost_ saddened me, as suddenly Malfoy brought his gaze back up to mine, a wicked gleam betraying nothing but irrepressible mischief in those perfect, ice grey eyes.

"But you know, as Slytherin's Prefect I cannot allow for students to be out of the dorms past curfew. And it's obvious to me you've haven't been paying close attention to that rule."

Did everyone visualize a gag in Malfoy's mouth this early into a conversation?

And how did he ever even see me sneaking around? I never saw him. Has he been spying on me? Freak.

I didn't care how he figured out, though it did somewhat wig me out. Besides, I snuck out of the dorms to visit the Black Lake dock, or go to the library. After curfew is the only time I can wander the halls without worry for anyone else, since most of the professors let me do what I want. Even Filch left me alone! Granted, that was mostly because I hid whenever he passed by.

"I know a few people who would _love_ to hear about your late night wanderings…"

A threat! That was a threat! Clear and deliberate threat to blackmail! I am in the right to protect myself then, and my right to protect my nightly wanderings. Girl's gotta do what she can to fight off the man.

And right now, this girl was gonna to possibly the stupidest thing she could.

Talk.

"Does that include your father, Malfoy?" I asked, turning my head to one side with curiosity as I pinned my eyes on Malfoy's.

I know I shouldn't engage him. Taunting Malfoy can lead to nothing but trouble. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once though.

His father was a sensitive subject I guessed, considering where he was at this moment. But I had found a raw nerve and I was going to pluck at it till it was sore. Malfoy could not be allowed to continue to pester me, and especially not blackmail me.

His attention, his presence was a risk for me and to him. Not even Malfoy deserved to suffer the way only I could make people suffer.

On second thought, yes he did. But I didn't want to get into more trouble with Snape, so I kept going.

"I bet he is just waiting to hear this latest piece of gossip. Sorrow Evercreech, Rule Breaker." I giggled. I quite liked the sound of that actually.

"He always seems to be waiting to hear about every little trite and chit of your remarkable schooldays." I went on, sighing a little boredly. "I suppose he could use the amusement though, seeing as how life in Azkaban isn't the most…stimulating."

Looking out from the corner of my eyes, I caught something rather unsettling. There was a subtle but poignant ripple effect of anger that washed over Malfoy's otherwise collected composure. His eyes though began almost bottomless with their rage and his whole demeanor had gone very still. Those eyes were full of black deeds as he stared down at me from his imposing height.

"You know nothing, _Evercreech_." He sneered my name as if it suddenly had become a threat.

I have to admit, I am slightly terrified right now.

No shame in it, cause right now, I have never seen Malfoy look so imposing or threatening. He certainly had changed since last year. It was as if the old Malfoy had been twisted and wrapped into the exact mold of his father over the summer.

Whatever could have happen to have made him this way? Something dark, something unimaginably cruel…

Eh, what do I care? I wanted this cretin off my back.

"Wrong Malfoy. I know everything." I said dismissively, trying my best to return the crushing glare he was still giving me. "And what I do at night is none of yours, or anyone's, concern. Unless I am shouting fire, then everyone should be concerned. Same goes for pixies."

With that I turned to face the front of the class, hands folded, ready for the lecture to start. Next to me, I could feel Malfoy's hate roll off in waves.

Hate? Mh, yes, hate. And possibly disgust. _Mostly_ hate, like one would have for a worm that had sneaked inside their apple. Personally, I would prefer being a glowworm, but that's not the issue here.

He seemed about ready to reply, most likely in the form of a snarl, when Slughorn called out from the front of the class.

"Mister Malfoy!" The large git sputtered when Malfoy directed his poisonous glare towards him, making me smile some. "Please, uh, take your seat. Class is about to begin."

The momentary distraction form Slughorn gave me time to better hide the slight fright Malfoy's reaction stirred, and he too seemed to have pushed down his anger.

Of course, when he put on a smirk of unquestionable spite, I knew things took a turn for the much, much worse.

Well, this can't be good.

"Get this through your addled brain Evercreech, I don't care what you do." Malfoy said in a low voice that was a curious mixture of honey and dark husk. Huh, now I'm hungry for honey.

Malfoy leaned in closer then, to the point I could see the clear lines of weariness that cut under his eyes, and my hands clenched as I prepared for anything.

"Just as long as you do it thinking about me." He whispered, winking briefly before turning away to walk to his table, the class room already filling up with the smoke of potion brewing.

Well, that was…different. Disturbingly different.

Turning once more to face the front of the class, I paid attention to the lesson as well as I could, fully aware of Malfoy's gaze that trained itself on the back of my head.

Sighing, I knew it was going to be a long, long day.

o0o

In the small labyrinth of columns and stone arches, an enchanted fire burned dimly in the dungeon that was the Slytherin common room. Loaded upon the dark leather couches supplied for their comfort, a group of students talked happily about this test they aced or this first year they made cry.

All except for one.

Draco, seated alone, could not be brought to pay attention to his friends' conversation, and they did not dare force him to.

It was obvious that Draco's thoughts were on nothing even those cunning folk who use any means to achieve their ends wanted to be burdened with.

Things had changed so much for the promising son of the Malfoy's. Starting the moment his father had failed to complete his mission at the Ministry of Magic the end of last school year. Since then, nothing has been right. Even it had only been a matter of months, Draco felt aged, weighed down. Everything had turned him to feel weary and caged. He couldn't even get a full night's rest anymore, thoughts plaguing him .

No.

It may have been under unpleasant circumstances, but this was Draco's path.

It had been laid out for him the moment he was born into the family name, and he had been ready and honored to follow it. He believed in what his family stood for, it was the only thing to believe in this world anymore. Everything else would crumble in its time, and Draco would take part in its devastation.

Still, he found himself unable to enjoy the useless trite his so deemed friends' conversed about.

Everything seemed so insignificant now by comparison, things once enjoyable now pointless.

And already, Draco was being met with trouble. His plans would take time and much caution. Things he would not be able to afford for long. Potter was already suspicious of him, but that promised son of Muggles was always sniffing around for trouble. That pathetic sod would do anything for attention. He could be a problem though, since he was a favorite of Dumbledore's…

The memory of their little incident on the Hogwart's Express made Draco stretch a half-hearted smirk; Potter looked so much better with his nose broken and bleeding.

As much Draco wanted to make Potter pay far more dearly for what he had done to his family, Draco knew he would have to wait. Snape was already circling him, waiting for the first sign of weakness to take over his mission.

His mother may have made the professor take an Unbreakable Vow, but Draco felt slighted they did such a thing. He could handle the mission given to him! He could do it, and he would. With no one's help.

He would prove his worth.

He would prove himself worthy of the scar that burned on his arm. Prove that he was useful enough to be left alive to suffer more nightmares…

No. This was his path; he would not allow himself to regret it. He had no choice, and he would choose to do this even if he did. It was the purpose of the Purebloods, to bring the true design of the world to life, the truth set by _Him_.

But to make matters more complicated, not only does Draco have his tasks as set by _Him_, but also another.

One given to him by his own mother.

This task of course, was not to prove his worth, but to possibly keep his father alive, better, get his father out of Azkaban. The man may have been a fool and defeated by Dumbledore's lackeys, but he was still Draco's father.

This task was whispered to him by his mother the day she dropped him off at London station to leave for school. She insisted on escorting him for just this purpose. Apparently, what she was wanted to tell him was not to be repeated or overheard by anyone. Not even Snape.

There may be something the Malfoy family could do to get back in _His_ good name.

A slight offering, if you will, to be given along with the ensured success of Draco's personal missions.

There was information that Draco's mother had been keeping to herself for several years now, mostly because she thought it insignificant at the time. But due to recent events, she decided that even the insignificant could be afforded a risk.

Draco's mother told him, in hurried whispers, that Lady Evercreech, an old friend of hers, once told her something.

Something about her only child, Sorrow. She told his mother that Sorrow was special. That there was something that she could do that would prove to be of great use to _Him_ if it were true.

Draco's small chore was to see if Lady Evercreech was right, and that Sorrow was 'special'.

That basket case? The only thing special about her was that against all odds she had yet to get dragged off to the permanent ward of St. Mungo's Hosptial.

Draco still had trouble believing even that much of what his mother told him. Looking back over the years, there was plenty enough evidence to suggest that Sorrow Evercreech was not only insane, but a sheltered freak who hid under tables and talked to Looney Lovegood.

How such a disgrace of a otherwise honorable Pureblood line ended up in Slytherin charred him to no end.

Still, his mother insisted he do as she asked, of which, seemed just as unfeasible as Evercreech being useful to help their position. He was supposed to get close to the girl. He had to be nice to her his mother said. Nice as in, he has to find ways to touch her as intimately as possible. Enough to get her to trust him, and allow him time to verify her mother's long ago made claims.

He was supposed to _touch_ her and demand her to tell him what she sees.

Absolute disgust was the first thing that came to Draco's mind. That girl was barely one by definition, and had as much brains and charm as a lobotomized troll. Though truthfully, she was _almost_ as good as he was at potions.

Second in his thoughts was that he would do as his mother asked, no matter how confusing or degrading. If just to soothe her. There were many worries on her mind, and he felt obligated to quiet them.

Besides, she was right, it never hurt to be on the constant look out for how to please _Him_…

By comparison as well, this task was not quite as unpleasant as the others Draco had. Sorrow Evercreech was just a wallflower, however insane, and would be easy to pick.

And so he did as his mother asked, starting his first day here. Engaging in out right confrontation would do nothing he quickly decided after

After that he watched and observed Evercreech whenever his thoughts weren't consumed with his other demands, having plenty of opportunities being in so many classes with her and noting her habit of wandering the halls of Hogwarts after curfew thanks to his Prefect duties.

And three days ago, he made his first move after an opportunity was presented to him.

How Evercreech came to be standing next to his bed the one moment he decided to let himself enjoy something, Draco was too disturbed to find out. But the situation presented a solid invitation for another confrontation, and he wanted to see what might happen should someone who the girl obviously did not trust tried to touch her.

When he made to grab her wrist, her reaction was…unexpected.

It seems that this chore was not going to be _quite_ as easy as he had first supposed, but it didn't matter. He would verify whatever it was his mother wanted to know in only a matter of time.

Just, how was he supposed to go about it without raising suspicion?

The occasional tease would pass by the other Slytherin's that still hung about him, but the attention this task deserved would raise questions, and he could not afford anyone an inkling as to what he was doing. Both for this, and his other tasks

So the real question was, how could he get close to a girl he would never have anything to do with under any other circumstance without losing face in front of the others?

It was this question that had Draco stumped, until the conversation that buzzed around him caught his attention.

"Sarah Mackillion?"

"Yeah." Said Pike to Crabbe's astonishment.

"You had Sarah Mackillion?"

"It wasn't that hard." Pike slumped down further into the entire couch his lanky figure claimed, becoming irritated.

"Yeah, the girl practically hands out maps to her bed." Goyle chimmed in. Crabbe's eyes widened.

"R-really?"

"Don't even mate. The girl is easy, not blind."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"What about Marine Vestebe?" Asked some other Slytherin boy that had taken to hanging about them. Honestly, Draco couldn't be bothered to learn any new faces.

"Are you kidding?" Scoffed Pike "Girl's got iron panties. Need to use Alohomora just to get the girl to even look your way!"

"Or just know personal hygiene." Someone muttered, causing the greasy haired Pike to send out a glare in the general direction the slight was uttered.

Draco smirked, seeing something of an opportunity presenting itself.

"Zabini dated her for two months." He said, causing all heads to turn to him before going over to Zabini, who was serenely standing by the fireplace, expression uninterested. Though more vain about his appearance than the others, Zabini had a certain air of dismissiveness towards all that irritated Draco.

"No? Zabini?" Doubted Goyle "How didja do that?"

"I asked her out, and she said yes." Zabini explained blankly.

"And that's all it took to get her to spread her legs?" Crabbe asked, sounding inspired to give such a concept a try himself now that Zabini had a new girl. From Slytherin of course, as had all the others that were mentioned. No other kind of girl was worth even mentioning; bloodtraitors and mudbloods made up the rest of the lot.

"That, and a certain amount of charm." Said Zabini, still indifferent. Crabbe

"Shut it! Don't go all high and might just cause you've had a few girls."

"A few?" Zabini said, smirking a little.

"Zabini's has tested his fair share of the girls around here, haven't you Zab?" Said Pike with a big, idiotic grin. That grin just got all the more imbecilic as he went on though.

"Not nearly as much as Draco though. His sloppy seconds are everywhere."

Eyes once more turned towards Draco, and he tried to shove away his weariness and look to be enjoying this simpleton conversation. He guessed compared to the others here, he and Zabini were the only ones who knew how to bathe properly, not to mention were from very prodigious and rich families, so it made sense that they were the most popular catches with girls. It took very little convincing from Draco's end to get what he wanted from them, something he very much enjoyed and took advantage of.

"Don't worry Crabbe." Went on Pike, noticing the round faced boy was pouting "You're dad's money will get you laid. _Eventually_."

Crabbe's face flushed with anger, and he smacked the back of Pike's head. It took a minute, but Crabbe eventually found a comeback that could be articulated with words.

"Yeah?! Well, what about Evercreech?" He asked, smirking some.

_That_ had Draco's full attention.

"What about that freak?" He sneered, already thinking on a scheme. He just needed to steer the conversation exactly where he wanted it to go, and…

"Well, no one's had her." Stated Crabbe, probably thinking it was enough to explain everything.

"So?" Said Goyle.

"Nothing. Just seems she's a bit more of a challenge than the other girls. Someone you could _actually_ brag about." Crabbe said with a bit of cleverness. Draco scoffed; this was too easy.

"A challenge for who? She doesn't have impossible standards Crabbe, she's just insane." He said, and instantly Crabbe was fuming again.

"Yeah, well, I bet you couldn't get her!"

There, perfect.

"Why would I want to?" Draco scoffed, putting up more pretense to throw away any suspicions. Course, this was not exactly the most clever lot.

"Cause I bet you can't!"

"What, can't bag her? You heard the freak, 'Low, foul smelling, imbecilic pink-tufted trolls!'" Goyle mocked in a high pitched squeal that poorly imitated Evercreech.

"Like I said, she's a challenge." Crabbe insisted, convinced he could make his point.

A rare silence took over the group then, some pondering, most looking around and stupidly waiting for something to happen. This wasn't the first time something like this had come up, whether it was who was a better dueler, or who was the best at tormenting a singled out first year. Challenges were thrown out and taken up almost every day, mostly by those who were then too cowardly to follow through with them, like Crabbe.

It had always been childish to Draco, but for once, he could use his fellow Slytherin's need for competition to his advantage.

Oddly, it was Zabini that spoke first.

"The Evercreech family is very prominent. Both family lines being of only Pureblood decent." He stated boredly, though there was a calculating look in his eye. He was just like his mother, always on the hunt for prestige and money.

"Her tits are bigger than Marine's!" Shouted Goyle, and hoots of agreement followed. Zabini did not look amused.

"And she doesn't talk much, so that's a point for her. Hate gabbers."

"Yeah. Bet she's a screamer when you pin her though."

"She certainly was when Malfoy grabbed her in the Great Hall!"

Another roar of laughter.

Draco stood up.

"All right then, how much?" He asked Crabbe, who became confused.

"What?"

"How much you bet I can't get Evercreech?"

Another wave of silence took the common room, but then, smirks started up all around as the boys glanced at one another, cruel mischief reflecting in their irises.

"Well…why don't we make this interesting?"

It took five minutes of betting, and five more of laying out what loose definition of rules they had, but finally, Draco had the cover he was looking for. Plus, a chance to make some pride money on the side…

~o0o~

I will get more into how Draco feels about him working for You-Know-Who at a later date, but I wanted to explain why Draco is paying any attention to Sorrow. Now you know, or, at least you can guess. Just to clarify, Draco doesn't know what Sorrow can do per say, just what he needs to do in order to get her to reveal her secret. Sort of.

Just racking up the drama aren't I? All these little secrets buzzing in our characters' heads, oh, I love me some angst!

With the Slytherin boys placing bets, how long can Sorrow keep her secret to herself? What will happen when Draco tries to get closer to Sorrow, on both an emotional as well as _physical_ level? Join me for the next chapter, which will be posted in (two?) days, to find out!

Stay naughty kiddes. ;)


	6. Luck Where the 'L' Sounds Like an 'F'

Chapter 6; Luck Where the 'L' Sounds Like an 'F':

Guest: I UPDATED! WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?! I DON'T KNOW, BUT I LOVE SHOUTING! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!

Lovellady: They do fight nicely, don't they? And here, some drama for you (and a cliffhanger! Ooh, naughty me!)

Reese Potter: Sad, funny, and naughty is what I do best, and I promise to deliver more of it here! Please, enjoy deary.

Becky: Of course I know about Buffy! I have even watched the Angel series, though, Spike was always my favorite character (he looks like a chiseled jawed Draco though, doesn't he?).

Lee-All-The-Way: Writing is here! Aww, I'm in the good book. I love Kerli a lot, so I am glad to find someone else who has good taste like me. Enjoy what I offer!

**Rilo Kiley's "Better Son/Daughter" **Perfect for all those little broken children of the world.

I stated it in the dialogue before, but I would like to make it clear that Draco is still Slytherin's prefect. It just makes sense to me that he would keep up his duties, if just so that he wouldn't be questioned by others when he went to do to the vanishing cabinet. So, yeah, Draco is still a prefect.

~o0o~

There was a lovely fog that had accompanied me to my visit to Black Lake, yet oddly the day was not cold for it, opposite in fact. Being so warm, I decided that my scarf and wool knit hat were a bit much, even for protection, so I only had my black leather gloves on and my regular vintage misery, my school uniform. It would need replacing sometime soon, I swear, I can feel a draft blowing through my stockings, though thank goodness the weather was somewhat warm.

It was not only the balmy weather that encouraged me to become lax in my attire.

Slytherin was once more back to ignoring my presence alongside the other houses. It may be too soon to not risk jinxing myself here, but since the green striped students have stopped pestering me two days ago, I feel like all is right with the world again.

Funny, I thought it would take Malfoy and his gang longer to get bored tormenting me. Jelly Beans, when they used to really go at it, Malfoy and his stinkers would taunt Harry Potter for months after being given an inch of material to go off of. Not that I felt sorry for Potter. Being the Chosen One, you kind of were a massive set up for yourself to be ridiculed.

Unfortunately for me, though I am also a one of a kind gone wrong, I cannot afford the attention Potter seems to inadvertently find himself surrounded with. Though I do draw the ever curious eyes, and at times I feel quite at home as a side show, being ignored is best. It's comfortable.

Being ignored is the home I've made for myself. Or should, since it would be safe and sound.

But I've never been good at being sound. Of mind at least…

Strutting into the Great Hall in time to catch the tail end of breakfast, I sat next to Luna at her secluded end of the Ravenclaw table, feeling like a jack-o-lantern in July.

"Hello Luna." I greeted, already buttering up a scone. The dazy girl smiled up from her fingers, in which was entwined a piece of invisible string.

"Hello Evercreech."

"You can call me by my first name, you know. You have for the past ten years."

"Oh, thank you Sorrow. I will."

I took out my copy of A_pparition for Beginners and Neanderthals_ as I moved onto a helping of bacon. I would be taking this class soon, since it was being offered here at Hogwarts this year. I think it will be rather exciting, getting my license. But then, I am worried about getting splinched. I am rather found of my lower limbs…

"How was the lake?" Luna decided to ask. Perhaps because under that mask of dottiness, she was worried about me and the recent wave of bullying from Slytherin.

"Murky." I mumbled.

"That's nice."

"Always."

No, no this would not be it. We would have a conversation this morning, Luna and I, even if it tired us out so much we would have to nap through all our classes!

"There's Blibbering Humdingers in the Astronomy Tower again."

"That's not nice."

"Never."

There, much better. It's said that eating with others and talking with people is healthy and what not. Never been much for personal fitness, but it's never too late to develop good habits. I hope.

Silence lasted as both Luna and I content to spend time quietly. Though we hadn't talked to one another since the night before it happened, Luna wouldn't ask if me outright if I was alright after my altercations with Slytherin or Malfoy. Luna knew if I wanted to talk about it, I would. She read me so easily like that.

"So, do you want to visit the Grey Lady later tonight, or–" I started to say after several minutes went by, when lo and behold, there was suddenly Crabbe standing there between us.

Vincent Crabbe, of all people, was standing at the end of the Ravenclaw table, looking like a sweating pig and fidgeting as if it was N.E.W.T.S. day.

"Uh, mornin' Evercreech." He grunted, shuffling his feet like someone was setting matches under them.

I wrinkled my nose. I had been so eager to enjoy the qualm that had been lasting for days now, that I did not once stop to think that perhaps Malfoy and his puppets were waiting for me to show my face again to strike.

Odd, usually I am not so foolishly optimistic. And of course, the one occasion I chose to be just might be the death of me. Not really, it can't be, well, you know what I mean.

"Is it? Well, I guess it must be good, since it seems you've showered, for once." I replied, green speckled eyes flickering here and there for hide or hair of Malfoy himself. Where this idiot went, his handler couldn't be that far behind.

Crabbe seemed to understand what I said was an insult, and so for a moment looked like his nasty self again, lips curling in anger. He looked like a upset bulldog. But then, he calmed himself, going so far as to even put a smile on.

What's going on?

"I, I uh, I heard you liked sweet things, so I wanted to give you this." Crabbe said as he put down what was possibly the _most temptingly delicious cupcake I had ever seen_ next to my plate.

No, really, what's going on here? It even had pink frosting and everything. How did Crabbe know I liked pink frosting?

"Just so you know, if this has been poisoned, I will eventually find out when I eat it and start foaming." I said suspiciously as I poked at the cupcake with a fork.

I know what you're thinking. Of course it's poisoned, this is Crabbe we're talking about here, why would you risk eating it still?!

Because, it was the _most temptingly delicious cupcake I had ever seen_. And it was _free_.

"It's for you. Cause your, your uh…you look…"

Crabbe's face twisted itself up like what he was about to say had to be wrung out of him. It looked like he was killing himself on the inside over and over again trying to be…nice. Nice to _me_.

Okay, I understand what's happening here. I passed out. I must really be in Divinations, and I was put to sleep by boredom, and my nightmares decided to change things up.

Got to be truthful though, by comparison to what normally happens, the screams of agony, the cries of the unfortunates who will haunt my head, this is…far worse.

Bring back the screams but leave the cupcake!

Finally though, Crabbe was able to stutter out an entire sentence. Complete with nouns, good for him.

"You look pretty Evercreech."

Okay, not what I expected to hear. Luna too even looked a bit surprised, her eyebrows lifting a half an inch in mild interest.

"I can't take credit, it's genetic." I replied, eyes narrowing themselves in further suspicion. The round boy let out a smile that might have been mistaken for cute only by his mother.

"Right, well, be seeing you around." He then waddled off, turning back once on his way to the Slytherin table to wink at me.

…nope. I'm lost again. What's going on here?

o0o

Since breakfast, the rest of the day had passed without incident. And I have to admit, it was a bit boring.

I didn't feel the hairs on the back of my neck raise once, not even when I had class with Malfoy. I never turned to check, but I was pretty sure he wasn't watching me. Never thought there would come a time I would find that odd.

What am I doing? Giving a single thought to that skinny Slytherin? It's five minutes to nine. My favorite time of the day.

Time to serve my detention with Snape!

Since his office was in the dungeons, it was never a long walk from the Slytherin dormitory. Though Trevor knows I loved taking my time. With curfew approaching, all the cautious students were away in their dorms, and the not so cautious were only places that were fun to be at, like the Astronomy Tower or Trophy Room.

But my favorite place in Hogwarts were the halls. The thousands and thousands of halls. They were like a wriggling labyrinth. Even Dumbledore has confessed that he has gotten lost in this school more than once. And with it being dangerously close to curfew and most of the students tucked into their dorms already, I didn't have to be so careful about my clumsiness. I could bump into everything and never worry!

Ah, but my joy of being along was overtaken by my joy of seeing the always imposing bolted door that lead to Snape's office. Smiling as I rapped a quick knock, the door was flung open, and there, standing in long black robes, was Snape himself.

"Professor Snape, I'm here to serve my detention." I announced, my usually deadpan voice sounding almost excited.

Down from his stretched nose, Snape narrowed his eyes. There was an almost tired tint to his usual disdainful expression, like his surliness was under the weather. It wasn't like Snape to show anything besides scorn, but his voice threw my thoughts on it out.

"Very well, Evercreech. Follow me."

"Thank you, Professor Snape."

I followed after him as he turned back into his office. It was a gloomy room, with dark walls lined with shelves of glass jars filled with bits of animals and gooey plants. With their varying colors, some of them near glowing, the room at times had a morbidly festive feel to it, and even though he was no longer teaching potions, I had a feeling the number of jars would continue to increase throughout this year, as it did every year.

Going back over to a wide table that was nearby a fireplace burning with, of course, green flames, Snape sat himself down with a dramatic sweep of his robes.

"Tonight, you will be organizing the potion store room. All of it, in alphabetical order according to the location where the ingredient can be found." He announced like he was giving a prisoner a sentence, gesturing uncaringly towards the door that led to the aforementioned store room.

Oh, finally, something challenging. Last time I was nearly bored, having to arrange the potion recipes according to which stirring technique to use. But Professor Snape was a brilliant one for keeping a-know-it-all like me entertained.

I am probably the only student who finds serving detention relaxing. It's a good thing I already know I am insane, if not, this would be incontestable proof.

"If I find one item missing, there will be consequences far worse than detention, Evercreech." He warned in a tediously annoyed droll.

"Understood Professor Snape. See you in an hour."

Okay, it took me longer than an hour, a lot longer, but I got the job done all the same. A few ingredients tried to grab at me, being of the _very_ fresh variety, but I managed to beat them back into their jars. I took a couple of minutes to check over to make sure everything was in its proper place, and to wash off the gillyweed stains, before emerging into the dim light of Snape's office again.

"Professor Snape? I'm done." I told him as I came up to the table he was working at, scribbling notes for his next D.A.D.A. lecture even though it was approaching midnight. Nobody really appreciated how much hard work Professor Snape did to make his students feel like complete idiots, but I did.

With a slow, seething movement, Snape put his feather pen back in its inkwell.

"Then we will move on to your lessons. Stand there."

I sighed. I had hoped to skip this tonight, not really being in the mood for it. But there would be no arguing with Snape.

"Yes, Professor Snape."

I stood where he directed me to, hands at my sides, clenching the pleats of my skirt in nervousness. Standing opposite me, with his wand at the ready, Snape looked like he was about to begin, when he found it necessary to instead speak.

"You've caused quite the commotion in the Great Hall the other day. It almost seems as if you wish to have your secret discovered, the way you carelessly guard it." He lectured, stern brows pulled down in disapproval for my past actions.

I had no excuses, or at least none that I wanted to bother making up, so I nodded my head in agreement.

"Which is why I am grateful you came in when you did to put an end to my blundering Professor Snape."

"Stop with your excuses." Snape snipped, raising his wand to the level of my eyes. "We will get this over with as quickly as possible."

"Yes Professor."

"Prepare yourself." He politely warned before he hissed, "_Legilimens_."

I hated this. I hated a lot of things, but I hate this very much indeed. It felt like my head, my poor head already filled with stranger's screams, was being split to make room for Snape as he tried to snoop through my thoughts and memories.

I wouldn't let him through. After all these years, I was nearly as proficient as Snape was at Occlumency. I said nearly, not perfect enough not to have these lessons still. It started right after the Cedric Diggory accident, one night each week. Dumbledore thought it best that I learn to at least guard my mind, since it was terrible enough that I was forced to tell my predictions if asked by the person who owned them.

If someone of lesser morals found out about my secret, they could merely enter my mind and learn the futures of hundreds.

And if their allegiances is with _He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named_, well then, imagine.

Though, its not like I know anything of real importance to one so evil. Since only few know my secret, I do not end up finding out much about lives. Oh, deaths I know by the hundreds, but about how important they are or will be, I miss much.

An explanation is due.

If I or the person I touch are _not_ concentrating on a question, any question so long as it is about their future, whether it's them finding true love, if they will get a promotion at the Ministry, or if they will pass their O.W.L.S., then my powers of prophecy go to their default setting I like to call it. With no question in mind, I foresee what will be the most impacting, dreadfully important moment of their futures.

Turns out for most people, it's their deaths. How selfish. For some it's the deaths of their family members, or even the loss of their home to a fire, or their little dog gets hit by a runaway broom. It could be anything really, except it must always be utterly _tragic_. The most horrific thing that waits on their personal horizons, for isn't that what everybody wants to know, in the back of their dreading little brains?

Ah, the decadence of decay and despair, all mine for the remembering.

But yes, if my victim _is_ concentrating, or at least I am, even idly, about their future and its certain uncertainty pertaining to an impending or wished for moment, then I can give unwavering answers. Now that sounds very useful, don't you think? I could help prevent so many disasters, promote so many new cures and advance the Wizarding World to a better place at an accelerated pace. Or at the very least, I could use what I find for blackmail.

But too bad I don't have a care for the world. I can only live on it, not in it with its little children, so I owe it no obligation, not even to take advantage of.

This is passive aggression at its best.

"Congratulations, that was nearly adequate." Snape told me in the sparingly short moment he allowed me to breath between spell castings, raising his wand all too quickly "Again."

o0o

"Tom, he was a piper's son, he learnt to play when he was young!"

It was now creeping on one in the morning. Not feeling remotely tired or hurried, I took my time getting back to the dorms.

"And all the tune that he could play, was 'over the hills and far away'!" I kept my arms stretched out as I traced the long hall carpet with my steps, belting a ditty I learned from a friend as loud as I dared. Oh, the fun I was having!

"Over the hills and a great way off, the wind shall blow my top-knot off!"

I love nighttime at Hogwarts. No one to bump into, no one to trip over, no one to catch me. I could even say naughty words and no one would chide me!

"Hello Painting of a Man with a Cheap Wig, how are you this evening?" I asked one portrait as I passed by, the dim light of my wand illuminating the hall poorly.

"Sod off!" the funny little man depicted in the painting shouted back at me.

"Mine's been fine too. Thanks for asking!"

I kept going. I knew I should at least pretend to be hurrying my way back to Slytherin dorms, but an idea popped into my head. Taking an unnecessary left, I once more started up my ditty.

"Tom, he was a piper's son…he learnt to play when he was young…"

This was a song I had learned from a friend of mine here at Hogwarts, and surprise, she wasn't Luna. Luna did introduce us though, and the three of us hit it off rather well, making effort to spend some time with each other whenever we could.

"And all the tune that he could play…was 'over the hills and far away'…"

Of course, she was such a shy thing, it was often times hard to find her, even when Luna was with me. That's why I sang the ditty like a bat would its sonar. If something sang back at me, then I knew I had found what I was looking for.

"Over the hills and a great way off…the wind shall blow my–"

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

I felt a shiver of startle wriggle up my spin as I froze. It always would be more useful to try and duck into a dark corner and run for it, but in a pinch my instincts were always more deer in headlights than catlike. Of course, it was too late to do anything; I was caught.

Seeing another dim light coming from behind me, most likely from a wand, I hoped it was only one of the professors, or even Flitch. They would just give me a slap on the wrist, or at most would make me see Dumbledore. I wouldn't mind that, it has been a while since I had seen him–

"Students aren't allowed out of their house dorms after curfew, Evercreech."

Oh no. There is only one person I know who has such a perfectly harsh, honeyed voice. One that promises trouble in its tone.

I turned, only to have my damned eyes confirm what my ears suspected.

Malfoy darkly cloaked stood there right behind me…_smirking_.

Just my luck that I don't have to even speak of the devil for him to appear before me.

Lucky, lucky, lucky Sorrow.

~o0o~

Uh-oh! What will happen next? Well, nothing good for Sorrow, I can assure you, but we'll have plenty of fun as Malfoy and our leading lady have a nice chat by themselves, and then poor Sorrow has more Slytherin trouble.

The next chapter will be up on Wednesday, so be sure to look for it!


End file.
